Joint Operations
by AuggieDeeksNico
Summary: NCIS goes to NCIS: LA for a joint undercover arms deal that requires two female arms dealers; Kensi and Ziva.
1. Chapter 1

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

This is a re-post of Chapter 1 after many revisions and much help from my wonderful beta _**BARD15**_. She helped me clarify where I wanted to go with this story as it is my first action/adventure story. She is an amazing writer. If you haven't read her story 'Surf's Up' then shame on you. You really should read it.

So for those that reviewed, favorited and followed the original version of this story, I hope you find this re-do better than the first version. I know I do.

So, please review with constructive ideas/thoughts. They make me happy.

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NCIS HQ

Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, 4pm

Gibbs opened the door to Director Vance's office without knocking. "You wanted to see me, Leon?" he asked as he closed the door and came entirely into the room.

Director Vance hated it when Gibbs just walked in but at least this time he was expecting him so he let it slide this time. "Gibbs, yes. You and your team are going to LA; joint undercover op with OSP." He handed over a file folder. He was silent while Gibbs quickly sifted through the information.

Inside the folder was the background of 4 people; 2 men and 2 women. The men were Navy; one was an XO and the other a Chief Petty Officer, both serving on a submarine. The women were civilian arms dealers; a team.

"How long of an op?"

"Unknown but shouldn't be too long, hopefully not longer than a week." Gibbs glanced at him then continued reading. "Wheels up at 0700 tomorrow morning. Get your team together." Leon said in a way that was clearly a dismissal. When Gibbs didn't move, Leon looked up at him. "What?"

"Why us? There are plenty of other teams." Gibbs asked as he closed the folder.

Leon looked up at him, "Your team is the only one with an ex-Mossed officer. This operation may tie into Hamas, Hezbollah or other terrorist groups. Do you know Henrietta Lange?" Leon asked.

Gibbs weighed his answer before saying, "I know the name and that there are lots of whispered rumors. I've never met her though."

Leon smirked with a slight chuckle, "Most of the rumors are true…maybe. She is not someone to underestimate. She requested your team." Leon was secretly sorry he wouldn't be there is too see how Gibbs dealt with the formidable Hetty Lange and how she would deal with the autocratic Gibbs.

Gibbs could tell Director Vance was thinking something but he wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was. "Any other information you want to give me now, Leon? There's not much about the operation in here." Gibbs said raising the folder slightly indicating it.

Leon took half a breath, "No. This is an OSP operation." Leon stated. "Get your team ready."

Gibbs didn't like that he was being sent to play second chair even if it was to the fabled Henrietta Lange. It didn't work well the last time Leon did it. The cost of the 'Port to Port' killer case was still a sore spot for him. He glared at Leon to let him know his displeasure with the assignment. Leon met Gibbs' glare with a glare of his own. After several heartbeats Gibbs realized the futility of the glaring and left the room closing the door a little louder than was absolutely necessary. He headed down to the bullpen, "Grab your gear."

Before he could continue Tony piped up, "What do we got boss?"

"We're going to LA. Wheels up at 0700 tomorrow. Joint extended undercover op with OSP. You'll get more details when we arrive in LA." With that he grabbed his own gear and headed down to Forensics. The rest of the team exchanged questioning looks, grabbed their gear and headed out of the building.

"Abby!" Gibbs shouted as he walked through the forensics door with a large Caf-Pow! in hand.

"Gibbs! What brings you to the land of Abby? Or as I like to call it, LABBY?"

"Team's headed out for an extended op in LA. I don't know how long we'll be gone maybe a week, maybe longer. Could you check on my place every once in a while; make sure it doesn't burn down? You have your key right?" He handed her the Caf-Pow! as soon as he saw her.

"I do, I will and be safe. Bring everybody back home Gibbs. Last time any of you went to LA, someone didn't come home and another time I was kidnapped & drugged. Make sure everybody comes home, OK?"

"Will do" he answered her before kissing her cheek and heading out the door not happy with the reminder of losing Jenny and how close he came to losing Abby.

**NCISLANCISLANCISLANCISLA**

NCIS O.S.P.

Los Angeles, CA

9am, Wednesday

The team was assembled in ops waiting for their diminutive leader to join them. Deeks was standing across from Kensi sending her looks designed to annoy her, most of which she did her best to ignore, Sam and Callen stood patiently as Nell and Eric typed away on their computers.

The quiet _whoosh_ of the doors had everybody turning to see Hetty walk through the doors. Hetty was followed in by Teams Gibbs. Callen's, Sam's, Kensi's and Eric's faces all smiled at the familiar tall silver-hair man that came in first. Next to come into the room was a middle-aged man followed by an exotic woman with almond shaped eyes and thick dark curly hair. Both stopped suddenly when they noticed the room full of computer equipment.

"WOW! McGeek was right; this is his kind of place. It's kind of creepy really." The comment got the attention of everyone in the room and glares from Eric and Nell.

"Tony." The amazing looking woman behind him said. Her tone had Tony looking around at the people around him, noticing the glares from the blonde man and the small red-head sitting in front of the bank of computers and screens. He smiled a small crooked smile at the two and gave a small wave.

"I think introductions are in order." Hetty said taking the attention away from Tony. "Most of you know Special Agent Gibbs; this is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo and former Mossed Liaison Office now NCIS Agent Ziva David. This is my team: G. Callen, Sam Hanna, Kensi Blye, former LAPD Liaison Officer now NCIS Agent Marty Deeks, and our technology expert and Intelligence Analyst Eric Beale and Nell Jones respectively." Hetty had pointed to each person that was introduced. Five minutes later all the hands had been shaken and all the greetings exchanged. "Where is Special Agent McGee?"

"Back in D.C. with a broken leg" Gibbs stated coolly. "Shall we get down to business?"

"Of course; Ms. Jones?"

Four pictures came up on the screens, "These are Executive Officer Thomas Johnston and Chief Petty Officer David Barley. Both are Sub-Mariners that are stationed on the _USS Sea Dragon_ which will dock in LA in two days.

"These two," she points to the women, "are Camille Martins and Jennifer Evans. They're a team of arms dealers that have been working together since they met in foster care. They're called 'Tiger's Eye' They came up through the street ranks dealing drugs, petty theft & grand theft auto before graduating to small time arms dealing; working up to the bigger items such as selling RPGs & automatic weapons to Mexican Cartels. This will be their biggest deal to date."

Eric stepped in, "Johnston and Barley have been identified as arms supplier 'Marco Polo'. Just one name, you get two for the price of one. They have been communicating with a group in Columbia arranging for the sale of 12 SAMs. Tiger's Eye was contracted by the Columbians to be the transportation for the SAMs since they have been getting weapons across the borders for a while now. But, sadly now they don't have any arms dealers to transport the weapons. Both members of Tiger's Eye were picked up 3 days ago crossing the Mexican/American border. The information about their arrest hasn't been released yet."

Hetty picked it up from there, "This is where all of you come in; Ms. Blye and Ms. David will go under cover as Jennifer Evans & Camille Martins respectively. Mr. Deeks this is going to be a tougher one for you. Your alias, Max Gentry has been contacted to facilitate the exchange of weapons between Marco Polo and Tiger's Eye." She stopped and watched as Deeks processed this information before going on. She knew that Max Gentry was not someone Deeks ever wanted to be again. "I know that the last time Max Gentry was in town, he was nearly killed by a former acquaintance, but you will have a body guard this time," she pointed to Mr. Hanna. "Mr. DiNozzo and Mr. Callen will be running surveillance and be back up."

Deeks couldn't just let it go, "So Sam is responsible for keeping me safe? And we get to spend a lot of time together?" He smiled as he thought of all the torture he could inflict on Sam all under the auspices of his cover.

Sam recognized the look and smile on Deeks' face. "Deeks don't get carried away. Don't forget, the op will end and I'm still responsible for your fight training." Sam reminded him with a glare that turned into a smirk when he saw Deeks' face fall.

DiNozzo started to laugh at him as the rest hid their smiles. Deeks stepped closer to Tony and glared at him, "You survive his fight training and then you get to laugh."

"Oh, I have one Ms. Ziva David ex-Mossed, so I think I could survive Sam." Tony stepped closer to Deeks not realizing he accidently insulted Sam. Sam's raised an eyebrow at Tony before turning his attention to the lady in question. "I mean that as a Mossed officer, she is one of the deadliest people here. And I've survived sparring with her, so…" He was cut off by Deeks.

"Sam was Navy SEAL and I've seen Kensi take him down and I spar with her all the time. I bet she could take Ziva in a second." Deeks came back at him.

"No way. Ziva could so take anybody." Tony replied as his anger started to get the better of him. After all, he was defending his partner and EVERYBODY knows Ziva is the most deadly.

Ziva and Kensi looked at each other over, appraising each other as fighters. Catching each other's eyes they both smirked and rolled their eyes, knowing the two men were playing a game of 'my horse is bigger than your horse' using the two ladies but recognizing that each man wouldn't be playing this game if the women in question were equally deadly.

Before the conversation could deteriorate any further, Gibbs came up to stand between Deeks and DiNozzo and before either man could move, he head slapped both men. Deeks was shocked that someone other than Kensi head slapped him; Tony said "Sorry boss, back to work" before he glared one more time at Deeks and turned back to the briefing. Deeks glared back at Tony and moved to stand closer to Kensi silently showing his support of her. All the others in the room where still hiding their smiles.


	2. Chapter 2

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed my story. I really appreciate it.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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Everyone returned to the briefing, full attention on Hetty. "I want to impress upon all of you why this mission is so critical. We have intelligence showing that these Columbians have ties to Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorists groups. If these SAMs get into Mexico and we lose track of them, they may find their way into the hands of terrorists. I need everyone on their best games. Mr. Gibbs and I will be working with some of the other agencies to get as much information as we can about where these are ultimately supposed to go.

"Mr. Deeks, your job as Max Gentry is to mediate the meeting between Marco Polo and Tiger's Eye. Mr. Gentry is a well-known dealer and you are to keep the meeting 'civilized'. Then Ms. Blye & Ms. David will transport the weapons into Mexico to meet the Columbian connection."

"What's our goal here, Hetty?" Callen asked.

"We want Mr. Deeks to find out where the SAMs came from and what other weapons Marco Polo can get. Ms. Blye & Ms. David are to find out who the Columbian connection is, so we can follow them and the SAMs in order to find out everything we can about who these weapons are destined for."

"We aren't really going to let 12 active SAMs out into the world, are we?" Sam asked incredibly voicing what everyone else in the room was thinking.

"Be assured Mr. Hanna, I'm not pleased with this idea either but we need to find this cell. Even if these weapons aren't destine for a terrorist cell, having a Columbian Drug Cartel with 12 surface to air missiles will severely undermine our efforts to stop the cartels. This is the best way to find out where they are going unless you have a better suggestion." Sam was silent but everyone in the room could feel the tension rolling off of him. Hetty continued, "A special operations team will be following the weapons to their final destination after the hand off to the Columbians. Once that information is made, the special operations team with 'hit' the location to retrieve the weapons and arrest as many people as possible." Everyone was silent as they processed the operation in general and their individual parts particularly.

When the silence had stretched out as long as Hetty was willing to let it, "Mr. Deeks, I need to see you in wardrobe. Ms. Blye, Ms. David you are needed in the gym dressed just as you are. Mr. Callen, Mr. Hanna and Mr. DiNozzo, you need to change into sparring gear with full protective gear. Mr. Beale & Ms. Jones will continue with the backstopping for our agents. And Mr. Gibbs?" Hetty looked at him expectantly.

"I'm going for coffee." Gibbs said with a smirk. Callen and Sam smiled remembering how much Gibbs hated the coffee in OSP the last time he was here. The comment broke the tension just a little bit.

"Of course. Shall we everyone?" She gestured for everyone to be on their way. The room emptied as the ladies headed up to the gym and the guys headed to the locker room to change. All except Deeks, "Mr. Deeks, please join me in the gym before we go to wardrobe." She headed up to the gym with Deeks in tow.

When everyone was assembled in the gym Hetty began. "Ms. Blye & Ms. David must act as one. Tiger's Eye has been together since childhood. According to our files, they fight as one and don't need to talk to communicate. You two need to practice to make it believable. For this exercise, these agents are going to attack you. You are going to defend yourself and your partner. Do not actually hurt each other. But for any of you who sustain an injury, you must play that injury. Am I clear?"

"No." Said Ziva.

Deeks speaks up. "This is an exercise actors do as part of "Method" acting. The guys are going to attack you; you are going to defend yourselves. Simple right? Except that if you take a shot to the arm that would normally break your arm, you have to play out the rest of the exercise as if you have a broken arm; if you take a shot to the leg that would injure your leg, you have to act like that injury is there until the exercise is ended. That goes for both sides."

"Oh, I understand that part now, but just to be clear I am not allowed to actually hurt them. Correct?" Ziva asked as she pointed to the three male agents.

Tony laughed, "Correct Ziva, if you hurt us, you don't have back up." He said this like he was talking to a child.

"I will have Kensi, do I need more?" She smirked as she turned to Kensi and gave her a wink. Callen, Sam & Tony all rolled their eyes. Kensi smiled at Ziva already liking her new partner.

Hetty took the comment as an affirmation of how well the two female agents were going to work together. She turned to leave, taking Deeks with her. Her departure from the gym was the signal to the other agents to begin.

The exercise began when Callen tried to tackle Kensi and Sam squared up to fight Ziva. Tony smiled with pride as he sat back and watched as Sam tried to take Ziva down. All that either man really remembers about that first attack is that it was over quickly and that they were very grateful for the protective gear.

Tony joined the melee after the first attack was over. He decided to find out what Kensi could do and came up behind her and tried for an arm lock, only to find his hand grabbing air, not arm and felt a front snap kick to the groin that doubled him over. Kensi followed up the kick with a quickly placed elbow on his jaw just below his ear. He looked up at her from the corner of his eye and gave her a small resigned smile, pleased that she was able to pull the elbow before actually knocking him out.

Ziva discovered that Sam, while very big, was not like most large men. He had speed behind his moves and determination behind his eyes. Soon Ziva found herself suspended in midair, her back pressed against the wall and his forearm placed across her throat. It was a position that she might have had to surrender or really hurt Sam to get out of. Fortunately, her new partner saw what was happening and after 'knocking' Tony out with an elbow to the jaw, she dodged quickly to the left to avoid a punch from Callen, slipped around his second punch and came up behind Sam just long enough to bring her 'practice' gun down on the back of his head, effectively 'knocking' him out as well.

Suddenly Kensi found herself on the ground with Callen's left hand around her throat and his right hand poised to punch her in the face as he straddled her waist. Her 'gun' had been knocked out of reach when he had taken to the ground. Now she was trying to use Callen's motion and her own strength do a flip so she would gain the upper hand when Callen stopped moving. Kensi looked behind him to see Ziva standing over Callen with a 'practice' gun pressed to his head. Kensi looked at the other two men and found that Ziva has taken a couple of extra seconds to 'secure them in zip-cuffs' before stopping Callen.

Callen put his hands up and let Kensi roll out from under him. Before anyone could pronounce the exercise at an end, Deeks had an arm around Ziva's throat applying just enough pressure to show that he could have taken her had he wanted to; having also taken away her 'gun' and pointing it at her waist. "I think this exercise is now over." Deeks said with pride at having gotten the better of the ones that had beaten everyone else.

Without warning, he found himself flipped over Ziva's shoulder. She quickly grabbed his arm that held the 'gun' and forced it into a painful wrist lock while taking away the 'gun'. The wrist lock was so tight that with just a little additional pressure it would have easily broken his wrist. He was distracted from the pain in his wrist and his attempt to get out of the wrist lock when he felt Kensi's booted foot apply pressure to his throat. "Aren't you supposed to be getting fitted for your wardrobe?" Kensi asked.

She let up on the pressure just enough for him to answer. "All done, Hetty sent me to join the exercises."

"Ok then." Ziva said as she released his wrist. "Now the exercise is over." She announced. Kensi removed her foot from his throat and stepped away offering him a hand to help him up. Ziva went over to pick the zip-cuffs off the mats where she had dropped them to show that she 'secured' Tony and Sam.

Everyone stood up and prepared to begin the exercise again this time with Kensi and Ziva starting the attack.

Up in ops Hetty, Gibbs, Eric & Nell were watching the exercises on the big screens. "I think our agents are going to do well together Mr. Gibbs."

"Agreed Ms. Lange." He answered while turning to look at Hetty. He studied her for a moment before turning back to the screens at the same time wishing he had a coffee in his hand. When the next exercise began on the screen, he looked over to Eric and Nell, "How are the IDs coming along?"

Eric and Nell looked away from the screens showing the gym and back to their own screens to continue their work. Since nobody knew how long everyone was supposed to be undercover, the backstopping had to be meticulous. "So far so good," Nell answered looking between Gibbs & Hetty. "We should be done in about 3 hours. We are replacing the photos of Camille & Jennifer with photos of Ziva and Kensi going all the way back to grade school if we can find them. Basically we are removing Camille and Jennifer from existence; and turning Ziva and Kensi into them. Also we have to remove all information about Kensi & Ziva in any records public or private. With Kensi, that's not so hard, we have been doing that over the last few years, but with Ziva we are going to have to access foreign databases. I don't know how Mossed is going to react to this." Nell's concern was evident in her voice.

"Do what you can Ms. Jones, but do not risk our international relationships please." Hetty said. Nell nodded and returned to her work.

Three hours later the men of the team, ice packs in hand, headed back into ops for an update. Ziva & Kensi were in wardrobe.

"You have to do this every time you go undercover? Get fitted for new clothes?" Ziva asked as she admired the dress she was putting on.

"Yep. But whatever you do don't damage the clothes. Most of them cost more than you and I make combined in a month. Hetty's very particular about the condition of the clothes when they are returned.

"Most of the time, I go under as bait wearing something close to nothing and very revealing. It will be, I don't know, 'nice' seems like the wrong word in this situation, but it's nice to go under as something other than bait." She spit the last word out as if it were bad sushi. A couple of seconds later she added, "Or the slutty stupid girlfriend of either Callen or Deeks. I don't know why bad guys always have trashy dumb girlfriends."

Ziva had started to laugh, "I had to go undercover as a married couple with Tony once. I was glad it did not last very long. He snores."

Kensi let out a laugh, "I did a married undercover with Deeks once. Justin & Melissa. She was a housewife. It really sucked and I was bored most of the time." Even though she would normally **never** reveal anything about a former op to anyone who wasn't directly involved with said op, she found herself opening up to the woman in the next dressing room. After all Ziva was someone who had probably done as many undercover ops as she had and she had Gibbs' and more importantly Hetty's trust.

"Agents? How do they fit?" Hetty asked.

"Perfect as always on this side, Hetty." Kensi emerged from her dressing room in a beautiful deep purple off the shoulder dress that came to just above her knees. It had a built in corset that plumped her breasts up and a sweetheart neck line to add emphasis to them. The skirt flared from the waist but it was weighted down at the bottom with crystal designs.

"I think this is the most amazing dress I have worn in a very long time." Ziva stated as she stepped out of her dressing room, sparkles in her eyes and a smile on her face. Her dress was a sapphire blue silk with spaghetti straps and crystals lining the deep 'V' of the neckline. It clung to her curves and stopped about mid-thigh. There was an attached slim belt of the same sapphire silk. The belt was studded all around it with matching crystals.

"Yes, I think those will do. The rest of your wardrobes are already packed. Change back into your street clothes and then meet us in ops. Be careful with those dresses Agents, I want those back in perfect condition or you will be paying for the damage out of your paychecks for the next 5 years." Hetty looked each woman in the eyes, turned and left to go back to ops.

"You were not joking were you?" Ziva asked.

Kensi just shook her head and re-entered her dressing room. Ziva eyes followed the smaller woman as she walked out of sight before turning back into her own dressing room being extremely careful in her movements regarding the dress.


	3. Chapter 3

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed my story. I really appreciate it.

And a Huge Thank you to Bard15. Without her this story wouldn't be very good at all.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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The new 'Tiger's Eye' team was back in street clothes and standing next to each other in ops getting the remainder of their instructions.

"Tiger's Eye," Hetty addressed the new team, "you did well in working together during the fighting. Now the more personal aspects of this relationship will have to be addressed. You will be staying at a safe house for the duration of the operation. Here are the keys to the safe house and to the vehicle you will be using." Hetty handed over both sets of keys.

"Oh! Slumber Party!" Deeks sing songed as he took a step out of reach of Kensi's punch.

"Braiding each other hair, facials and talking about boys, that's so…You… Ziva." Tony snarked.

Deeks looked at Tony, "I'm going to bring the ice cream and Twinkies. Kensi can't live without them." He said in a stage whisper. "What are you going to bring?" he asked.

Tony had a big grin on his face, "I'll bring the chick flicks. They're Ziva's favorites. 'Thelma and Louise' being her absolute favorite. It's all about Brad for her."

"Grow up Tony," Ziva said shaking her head; Kensi had slowly inched her way just near enough to Deeks and punched him hard on the shoulder.

Tony took a breath to start again but Gibbs turned to stare at Tony, "Shutting up now, boss." Tony stated.

Everyone except Hetty and Gibbs laughed at Deeks as he rubbed his shoulder and at Tony's chastised look.

"When does the op begin?" asked Callen to bring everybody back to the business at hand.

"Day after tomorrow for Deeks. He has to establish contact with Marco Polo when they dock and make the arrangements for the meet." Gibbs answered. "Depending on how long it takes to get the merchandise will determine when 'Tiger's Eye' will be needed."

"And don't forget Sam, _my bodyguard_" Deeks said tauntingly with a patented 'I'm-going-annoy-Sam-all-day' smile.

"Deeks" Sam growled.

"Mr. Deeks, I think I need to clarify Mr. Hanna's roll for this operation." Hetty stated. "The area that the meeting is going to be in is the area where you, Mr. Deeks were shot." Hetty waited a second to let that sink in. "Mr. Hanna is there to protect YOU. PROTECT you. It would be unfortunate if he were distracted by something frivolous, don't you think?" She asked him trying to emphasis how important Sam is to Deeks continued good health before turning to Sam. "That being said, Mr. Hanna I would hope that you wouldn't be distracted by anything."

Accepting the gravity of the situation and yet still undeterred in his efforts to annoy Sam, Deeks continued, "So if during a meeting I told Sam to get me a soymilk latte with two sugars, he has to do it, right?" At the silence that followed his statement, he looked around him smiling at his own humor. There was nothing but serious faces looking back at him. He even looked to Tony to see if he shared in the humor, he didn't.

Hetty simply lowered her head to look at the floor and took a deep breath. She liked Mr. Deeks, but one of these days…She raised her eyes and looked directly at Deeks but before she could say anything, Kensi slipped just a little closer to Deeks and head slapped him. "I see why you do that Gibbs, it's fun!" Kensi exclaimed.

The room burst out into laughter at the look on Deeks face; except of course Hetty and Gibbs. Gibbs just cracked a small smile and Hetty again lowered her face to look at the floor in an effort to hide her near outburst of laughter and the smile that was trying to make its way to face. When she had it under control she looked at Deeks again.

"Mr. Deeks," Hetty said gaining his attention back from the glare he was shooting at Kensi as she stood there smiling at him, "keep your mind on what you are there to do. Mr. Hanna is there to watch everything that is going on around you, don't distract him. And Ms. Blye, head slapping is not something," Hetty started to say until she caught Gibbs watching her. She didn't want to undermine his authority with his team so she quickly amended what she was going to say, "the members of the Office of Special Projects do to each other."

"Can we get back to work now." Normally this is said as a question but with Gibbs it's a statement that everybody listens to.

"Agreed. Tiger's Eye, to continue with the 'bonding' process, you will go out tonight in the dresses you tried on earlier. You are to be social with each other and with others around you. Mr. Deeks you are to go as Max Gentry and Mr. Hanna as your lieutenant and extra eyes because it has become apparent that you both need to work on your partnership as well. But stay away from Tiger's Eye. Mr. Callen and Mr. DiNozzo with also be there as back up for both teams."

"Excuse me, Ms. Lange, are Kensi and I lovers?" Ziva asked.

The entire room went silent, each man there held his breath waiting for the answer. Ziva looked around the room noting that Tony's eyes had glazed over. The other half of Tiger's Eye widened her own eyes at the question but she looked around the room as well and saw that not a man in there moved a single muscle. She wasn't even sure they were breathing but they all stared at Hetty, waiting for her answer.

Hetty smiled because she too had noticed the sudden stillness from her male agents and decided to play a little, "Call me Hetty, Ms. David. That is entirely up to you and Ms. Blye," she said to Ziva then waited an extra moment before continuing, "but according to our information, no, Camille & Jennifer aren't lovers."

Each man let out his held breath. Kensi just rolled her eyes as she saw Deeks turn to her and smile a wicked smile. Ziva however hadn't taken her eyes off Hetty. There was something familiar about the way the smaller woman talked to her. It reminded Ziva of something from her childhood.

"Now as it is getting late I suggest you all leave to prepare for this evening. Just a reminder to everyone, I want your wardrobes back in perfect condition." Hetty stated.

Tony walked over to Kensi, "I suggest you drive. Either that or bring some barf bags. Director Sheppard used to think Ziva was an East German cab driver in a prior life."

At the same time Deeks had wandered over to Ziva and made a similar suggestion, "I think you should drive. Trust me."

Ziva turns to Kensi and said, "I am told I should drive."

Kensi glared at Deeks, "I was just told that I should drive." Ziva turned to squint at Tony. Tiger's Eye started to move toward each other, appraising each other as they got closer.

Tony and Deeks were standing next to each other watching, hoping to see how the question would be resolved.

When Kensi and Ziva reached each other, Ziva spoke up, "You drive. This is your city." Smiling at each other they turned and headed to the exit. Ziva passed next to Deeks at the same time Kensi passed next to Tony. Tiger's Eye, showing just how in sync they already were, head slapped each other's partner as they passed.

"Hey!" Deeks yelled, "Hetty said we don't do that to each other."

"I didn't head slap you," Kensi said and she and Ziva could be heard laughing all the way down to the bullpen.

Tony glared at the retreating backs of the new partners. "Nobody head slaps me" Tony growled. Deeks turned to him with an eyebrow raised in question. "Alright! Nobody head slaps me except Gibbs because he's the boss."


	4. Chapter 4

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed my story. I really appreciate it.

This was going to be a long chapter because it is more of a partnership study of both teams and all the new partnerships. Ziva/Kensi, Deeks/Sam, Tony/Callen & (scary though it is) Hetty/Gibbs. But I didn't want a really long chapter so I split into 2 chapters. I hope this worked well. There is just so much material here to work with that paring it down was extremely hard.

A GIGANTIC THANKYOU to Bard15 for the dialogue between Gibbs and Hetty. She wrote the dialogue and with her permission, I used it here. She also was a huge help in a lot of other areas of the story so thank you for those as well. Ain't Betas GREAT?

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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Tiger's Eye, Deeks and Sam had left ops to prepare for the night ahead but Gibbs motioned for Callen to follow him.

Callen gave Gibbs a nod before turning back to Sam, "I'll catch up later," he said as he followed Gibbs to Hetty's office.

Hetty looked up as the two men entered her office. "Deeks isn't exactly an agent," Gibbs said as way of voicing his concerns.

"I'm well aware of that Agent Gibbs," Hetty replied.

"He certainly rubs Sam the wrong way." the statement more indicative of a question than an observation.

"That he does," Hetty agreed.

Realizing that his subtle probes for an explanation were being sidestepped and by an expert he asked pointedly, "so you wanna tell me how an LAPD detective ends up working special project ops or do I just have to guess?"

"What is it exactly that you would like to know Agent Gibbs?" Hetty inquired.

"This is a major arms dealer we're talking about...and you want to send in a police detective..." He stated only to have Hetty cut him off.

"Who is a highly skilled undercover detective that has come across his fair share of high caliber criminals even before NCIS. And he has accepted the position of agent that I offered him." Hetty said by way of an explanation.

"Where's this coming from Gibbs? DiNozzo was a Baltimore cop." Callen asked.

"Yea and now he's a _trained_ agent." Gibbs countered.

"If you're worried that he cannot handle this assignment then let me assure you he is a most capable undercover operative and has proven time and again that he can handle anything this job throws at him." Hetty said in support of her former liaison officer.

"Why hasn't he gone through training yet?" Gibbs asked pointedly, causing Callen to throw a questioning glance at his operations manager; curious as to her answer.

"Right now Mr. Deeks' capacity as our liaison officer is serving its purpose for LAPD. They have not released him as of yet. And when they do…" She let her statement fade away.

Gibbs looked at the woman for a moment before turning to Callen, "You trust him?"

"Yes, I do." Callen spoke up looking Gibbs right in the eye. "We've all had trials and hard ops but Deeks has proven himself to me and to our team."

Hetty was surprised to hear the support Callen was showing Deeks. It was always implied but had never been stated.

So far though, Gibbs was not impressed with Deeks. He did recognize that he was very much like Tony; always using jokes and a big mouth to deflect and evade just about everything. But the fact that Callen trusted him went along way to easing some of the concerns that he had. He decided to leave it for now because there was work to do. "Ok, if you trust him I'll leave it there."

"Good," Callen said standing, nodded to Hetty and then headed out of the office with Gibbs, "now go get coffee. You're getting grumpy Old Man." Callen laughed at Gibbs' reaction to being called 'Old Man'. "I have to get ready for an evening spent with DiNozzo. I imagine it will be just like spending it with Deeks." He said with exaggerated despair.

Hetty watched them leave with a frown on her face. After they left, she poured herself another cup of tea and pulled three personnel files out of her desk drawer. She opened the top file labeled 'Gibbs, LeRoy Jethro'. Before she could start reading the file she noticed that Sam was standing waiting for her to signal him to enter her office.

"Mr. Hanna, what can I do for you?" Hetty asked as she waved him into her office and closed the file.

"I was wondering if it would be alright for Deeks and I do something other clubbing for our 'bonding'?" Sam asked as he came into the office.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking something more along the lines of fight training or sparing." He replied.

Hetty thought for a moment before answering, "I don't think so Mr. Hanna. Mr. Deeks doesn't need a black eye or split lip before the op begins."

Sam was disgruntled but accepted the comment for what it actually was—an order. He turned to leave but was stopped.

"I agree that clubbing may not be the best place for the two of you. Perhaps the shooting range would be better." Hetty said looking at him for a moment before dropping her eyes back to the file on her desk.

Sam gave her a half smile and left to find Deeks. He found him several minutes later at wardrobe trying to decide what to wear that night. "Deeks." Sam called.

"Sam. What are you going to wear? We don't want to clash after all." Deeks joked.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about if I were you. You're not going to need it where we're going." Sam said cryptically.

Deeks stopped what he was doing and gave him quizzically look. "Then where are we going?"

Sam smiled at him while rubbing his right fist into his left hand. "Some place that is so much better." He said as he started to pull Deeks towards the gym.

Deeks saw the movement of Sam's hands and where they were headed and let out a groan. "Sam, I don't think fighting is a good bonding experience." Deeks whined.

Sam barked out a laugh, "I don't agree with that but you're lucky because Hetty does. We're going to the firing range." Deeks perked up at this and happily followed Sam up to the firing range.

Deeks had been jabbering about absolutely nothing on the trip up to the range. Finally getting a response from Sam, "What is your problem?" he growled as they got the range set up for a long practice session.

"Problem? What problem? I don't have a problem. Dude, why you are so serious all the time?" Deeks replied.

"This is serious. I don't understand why you are NEVER serious. You laughed off Hetty's concern for you."

They picked up their individual weapons, Sam's preference being the SIG-Sauer P229 and Deeks' being the Smith & Wesson 5944 and fired the entire clip of each weapon into their targets.

When the clips were removed and the safeties on, they pushed the button to bring their targets closer. Taking off his ear protection Deeks continued. "No I didn't. Look I get that this is serious and you are a serious person. But are you this serious when you go home at night? I bet not because if you did, your kids would be frightened of you. I bet at home you laugh and play just like a normal person. I bet there might even be an unauthorized chortle now and again. Come on, you know you do."

"You're right. At home I do laugh and play with my family. But I'm going to let you in on a little secret," he leaned closer to Deeks, "We're not at home. We're at work. Work is serious and you should take it that way."

By then the targets had reached the front of the range, Sam had a tight grouping to the head and the heart. Deeks' target showed a tight grouping in the heart but taking a page from one of his favorite movies and knowing how much it would annoy Sam, he had aligned the head shots into the shape of a smiley face.

"Serious, huh? So, you don't think I take the work seriously or seriously enough?" Deeks baited him with a big grin on his face as he showed his target to Sam.

Sam saw Deeks' target, sighed, lowered and shook his head, "You don't take anything seriously." He said raising his head and proceeding to place a new target on the clip and send it back to the end of the range.

"I beg to differ," Deeks answered him, placing his own new target into the clip and sending it to join the other one at the end range, "I take work very seriously; I just don't take myself very seriously." That caught Sam off guard. "I mean think about what we do every single day. All the crap we see, the violence and anger. Why would I want to bring that into me. I feel it, just like you do, but I can't be...you. I prefer to laugh than to cry."

Sam was taken back. It was really the closest Deeks had ever come to talking to him about how he was affected by the job they do and the job Deeks had done for the LAPD. He had seen Deeks easily step in between Kensi and a gunman. He also remembered how he had been as Jason Wyler when they had first met.

The conversation temporarily stopped as they re-loaded their weapons with a new clip, flicked off the safety and prepared to fire. Before they started to fire, Deeks shouted to be heard "I bet you 10 bucks I can get a tighter grouping over the heart than you can."

Sam smirked and nodded his agreement. Then the air around them exploded with the bullets being fired.

When their clips were once again emptied and the targets headed back to the front of the range, Deeks continued, "I get that you're a Teams guy. You love the rules and structure and that's how you deal with the crap. I surf, I laugh and I try to make other people laugh." He wiggled his eyebrows at Sam with a just a small smile on his face. "Or get under their skin."

The targets arrived and after Deeks took a look at his target, he leaned closer to Sam with a non-sequitur "What's your name? Nobody ever said. I'm not calling you Sam on the op." He held up his target next to Sam's. "Crap, missed it by one." Deeks put the target down and pulled out his wallet to hand Sam the $10.00.

Sam took the $10, smirked and said, "You can call me 'Sir'." He was beginning to understand why Deeks was the way he was, but he still didn't care for the carefree surfer dude attitude he projected.

"Well, if you aren't going to pick one, I'll just have to pick one for you. I'm very good at it, ask Fern." Deeks baited him again.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Fine. Call me Mr. Thomas."

"Really? Mr. Thomas? You want to be called Mr. Thomas?" Deeks smiled at him as he re-filled his two clips with ammunition. "Ok, Tommy it is." He said as he slid one of the re-filled clips home, flipped the safety off and started to fire again.

Sam shook his head as he also re-filled his two clips with ammunition, slide in the clip and fired at his own target.


	5. Chapter 5

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed my story. I'm honored you took the time to read this story. I really appreciate it.

This is the second chapter of the partnership study of both teams and all the new partnerships. Ziva/Kensi, Deeks/Sam, Tony/Callen & (scary though it is) Hetty/Gibbs. I hope this worked well. There is just so much material here to work with that paring it down was extremely hard.

THANKYOU to Bard15 because she is a machine and if I said it once, it should be repeated: Ain't Betas GREAT?

We are getting to the operation soon, I promise.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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Later that night, Tiger's Eye was sitting on a sofa in a VERY upscale club wearing the gorgeous dresses Hetty had loaned them. They had been there for about 20 minutes and were still smiling and laughing at the reactions of their back up when they walked in the door of the club.

"I did not think Tony's eyes could get so big." Ziva said.

"Are you kidding me? I've never seen so many bugged out eyes anywhere, Camille." Kensi said falling easily into character.

The ladies had every right to be pleased with the reaction they received. Ziva had decided to wear her hair in a high ponytail which elongated her neck even more than her dress already did. Her Star of David pendant was on a long silver chain that let the pendant rest out of sight between her breasts. The necklace and the 'V' neck of her dress forced the eyes to her décolletage'. Silver hoop earrings and smoky eye make-up added to her exotic allure. The black platform high heeled peep toe shoes had given her an added 4 inches of height.

Kensi had chosen a diamond pendant on a gold chain that came to rest in the dip between her collar bones. Her hair was loose and floated around her shoulders. She had added some barely there red highlights to her hair to more approximate what Jennifer looked like. Her make-up was the same dark smoky look to match her partner's but with more purple than grey. She had chosen a pair of 2 inch sling back sandals so she wouldn't tower over her partner.

As they were there to get to know each other and their characters neither woman had an earwig in.

Both women looked at the server that brought another couple of drinks to their table. Smiling the server told them, "These are from the two guys in the corner over by the bar," as she pointed to Tony and Callen. Having been there for only 20 minutes they had already amassed several different drinks. They were spread out on the low table in front of them; all of them having been purchased for them by the many male admirers the ladies had; none of the drinks had been touched until now. They took the pro-offered drinks and held them up while looking at Tony & Callen as a salute to the men that sent them over.

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"This is so boring." Eric sighed to Nell as they sat in ops watching the teams interact with customers.

"Why is this any different than any other operation?" Nell replied still typing at her computer.

"Because all we are doing is watching. This isn't even a real operation yet; we aren't running any background checks, facial recs, license plates; it's just like watching a bad sit-com or rom-com. It's boring."

"Yea, I have to agree with you there. At least it looks like Kens & Ziva are having fun. Did you see how many drinks have been sent to them? Tony and Callen don't look like they are having much fun. They've been standing around sipping on drinks since they got done placing all the cameras and mics around. That was an hour ago." Nell said as she turned to watch the monitors in front of Eric.

"Ziva and Kensi look like they're having a really _really_ good time. Did you see Tony's and Callen's faces when they walked in? I thought Tony was going pass out." Eric said with a laugh. "Oh look, someone is finally approaching them. Yea, some excitement." He deadpanned as Nell leaned back over to look at his screen. "If we're lucky he will do something stupid and Ziva or Kensi with kick his butt."

Nell was quietly hoping for the same thing. She didn't say anything until she heard a similar comment come from Tony's mic. She and Eric shared a laugh as she turned back to her screen to continue with the final stages of the backstopping for Ziva. It was taking longer than she thought it would because of Ziva's real background and history. With her clearance levels she was able to see more of Ziva's history than she figured Tony even knew about. The more she found out about Ziva, the more impressed she was.

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The young man approached Tiger's Eye's table with more confidence that he probably felt, his friend was trailing behind him. "Would either of you ladies care to dance?" He asked.

Ziva and Kensi looked at each other. "Go ahead, Camille. I'll stay here and talk with his friend until you get back." Ziva smiled to the young man, took his hand and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor.

The other man sat down a good distance from Kensi; looking at the table, the sofa, his friend, basically anywhere that wasn't Kensi. "Are you alright?" Kensi asked him.

"Yep." He said rubbing his hands on the legs of his jeans.

"I'm Jennifer. What's your name?"

"Russ."

Kensi waited for him to say something else. "Tourist?" Kensi finally asked.

He still hadn't looked at her. "Yea."

Kensi rolled her eyes and leaned further back into the sofa, hoping Ziva would get back fast because this guy was boring and nothing like what she was used to but was he what Jennifer used to? She didn't think so but she decided to try again "So, how long have you been here?"

"Just a couple of days." Russ replied again not saying anything more as he flicked his eyes toward her.

_Please God! Send Ziva back soon! No,_ _not Ziva; Camille_. She thought as she looked at the young man for a few moments. _ Crap! I don't care what we call her; just send her back, Please!_ A few minutes later, Ziva finally returned with her partner.

"Thank you for the dance." Ziva said as a basic dismissal for the young man. After they both left, she leaned closer to Kensi. "Jen, are all men in California that boring?"

Kensi nearly spit her drink out with laughter. "His friend was worse. Mostly just one word answers. And no, Camille, most aren't that boring." She replied as she thought of the men on her team.

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Callen and Tony stood at the bar, each with a drink in their hands slowly nursing the drinks. Their eyes darting around the room as much for surveillance as to just give them someplace to look other than at each other. If they looked at each other it would be like having to acknowledge the uncomfortable silence between them. Actually just having the silence was odd as both men were seasoned operatives and Callen knew Tony was a talker. The silence stretched between the two agents as small talk was not coming easily to either man.

It struck Callen as strange, that two agents from the same agency could have so little in common: yeah, they worked for different divisions but they were still NCIS and knew quite a few people in common; Renko, Abby and McGee just to name a few. And they had both survived Gibbs. That in itself should make them part of some kind of exclusive, members-only club.

"The girls seem to be hitting it off," Tony said suddenly, as he nodded to where Ziva and Kensi were chatting with two young men.

Callen glanced at the ladies and then back at Tony as he took another sip of his drink.

Tony returned Callen's casual gaze with a frowns as he said pointedly, "Look, this is gonna be a long op if all we manage to do is sit and stare at each other. We need to make nice before Gibbs has both our hides," Tony said.

That finally broke the ice between the men and Callen snort-laughed at him. "That is true. He will take it out of both of us." Callen looked at Tony, "Well maybe just you. I have Hetty to protect me."

"What's she like?" Tony asked. "I've heard stories, I mean who hasn't, right, but are the stories real?"

Callen looked at him in eye before answering, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you," Callen deadpanned.

Tony gave his companion a sardonic smile and an expectant look, so Callen continued, "Actually, after having worked for her all these years, I can honestly say, I have absolutely no clue."

With a snort of amusement, Tony's eyes drifted back to Ziva and Kensi, and nodding towards the woman he said, "Check it out. One of those poor saps finally got the courage up to dance with Ziva. Oh, maybe he will do something stupid and we get to watch." He said with glee, unknowingly stating the same thing that was being said in ops.

They watched in silence again until the dance was over and Ziva had rejoined Kensi at their table. Ziva must have said something to Kensi because Callen noticed she almost spit her drink out before laughing.

"So," Tony started the conversation up again, "Hetty Lange. What can you tell me about her?"

Callen raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you want to know?" Callen had gathered hints of Hetty's background and felt he had a certain grasp of her past, no specifics of course, but a general idea of some of the things she had done. He was not about to give information out about her or anyone else who was on his team. Even to a fellow NCIS agent.

"I just want to know…" He stopped talking because he really didn't know what he wanted to know about the small woman. Were the rumors true? Too general, after all some might be true, some might not be. Was she as deadly as she acted? What difference did it make if everyone believed it? Can she be trusted? Well, Callen trusted her and Gibbs trusted Callen, and Tony trusted Gibbs so by extension Tony should trust her, right? For that matter he should trust Callen. So what did he really want to know?

"Never mind" he finally said. "I don't know what I want to know."

Callen gave him a half smile and let the subject drop. The strange silence returned to the two men. But Tony being who he is didn't let the silence go on for long. "How long have you known Gibbs?"

"Since his first boat." Was Callen's simple answer. "What boat number is he on now?"

"He stopped after he built the _"Kelly"_. I'm not sure what he is working on now." Tony looked down at his drink, "maybe the _Jenny_ will be next."

Both men were quiet remembering that horrible time when they lost their last director. Callen had known that Gibbs and the late Director has been close but didn't know how close they were. If Tony thought that Gibbs might build a boat in her honor, they must have been very close. The silence stretched out again as both men scanned the crowd. This time Callen was the first to break it, "Why don't you have your own team? I know you were offered Rota, Spain."

Tony hoped he was able to keep the surprise off his face at the unexpected question. But he was very surprised that Callen knew about the offer. He was more apprehensive about Gibbs. If Callen knew, surely Gibbs did too. He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulder as he took a sip from his drink trying to give himself time to answer. "I like where I am and the people I work with," Tony said as his gaze fell on his female partner.

Callen could see emotions cross his face. He couldn't identify all of them but he did recognize trust, respect and awe as the most prominent.

Tony continued, "Gibbs is still the best and I have to tell you, I have learned so much from him and I still learn things from him." Again the respect was reflected in Tony's voice and face.

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Across the bar the ladies were laughing and talking and just in general having a really good time telling stories to each other. Most of which were highly exaggerated due to the nature of the stories and that the truth couldn't be told in public.

It started out as a simple story Ziva was telling about something Tony had done but by the forth story it had ballooned into a game of who could tell the most outlandish story that had some truth to it. They were taking turns telling the stories and right now Ziva was spinning the tale of the time Abby was working for the FBI and Tony, McGee and Palmer had destroyed her lab while trying to solve the case. Of course the stories contained only fake first names or just the initials; Abby became Allie, Gibbs became LJ, Deeks became Danny and Callen became Calvin. The stories were mostly fabrications, but there was some truth to them.

"Stop!" Kensi had to cry while holding her sides from laughter, "Oh my sides hurt." She reached over to the table, grabbed her pilsner of beer and took a drink. "She hacked LJ's e-mail and tricked them into joining her in her chem lab before locking the door behind them? That's perfect! No escaping Allie's wrath!"

At that time Kensi's phone let her know she had a text. It was from OSP. Her face showed dismay, "Fun's over, time to go to work Cam. Let's go." Kensi said as she stood to leave, Ziva following her out of the club.

As Kensi was receiving her text, Tony & Callen heard Eric in their earwigs, "Callen, Tony? Night's over, we need you to come back."

"On our way. We will let the girls know." Callen replied.

"No need" Eric said, "I've already sent a text to Kensi's phone. I see they are already leaving."

Tony had watched the ladies stand up and start to move toward the exit and indicated as much to Callen with a tilt of his head. Both men left the remainder of their drinks on the bar and made their exit.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM

As Ziva was being returned to her table after her dance with the dull young man, Sam and Deeks were continuing their own bonding experience.

However their bonding was looking more like an episode of _Top Shot_. So far, they had shot designs such as the smiley face, squares, triangles and stars into the targets. They had also taken a deck of cards and taped them at different locations on each target to see who had the most control and the best aim. Calling out each other's targets such as "Sam, you have to hit the upper left corner of the 2 of clubs without hitting the number or the club." Or "Deeks your target is the top point on the center diamond on the 10 of diamonds."

They had shot up about half the deck when Sam got a new idea. "You up for something more difficult?" Sam asked.

Deeks smiled and nodded. "Wait here." Sam smiled and walked out the door and down to Hetty's office.

"Hetty?"

"Yes Mr. Hanna?"

"Is it alright if we break out the big guns; the M1A1, the Bravo 51 and the M16?" At Hetty questioning look, Sam simply replied "We're not done bonding yet." He had discovered that Deeks was a very good marksman and had fun practicing with him.

Hetty saw the excitement in Sam's smile and gave consent, happy that Sam and Deeks had found a common ground. "Nothing to crazy, Mr. Hanna, there is still work to be done." Hetty reminded him.

Sam's smile got bigger as he nodded his head and headed into the armory. As he got closer to the firing range, he could hear that Deeks was still firing. He stood in the door until Deeks was done, "Let's go. We are going up the game."

Deeks secured his weapon and followed Sam into the armory. "We get to play with the big stuff?" Deeks asked smiling one of the biggest smiles in his arsenal.

Sam smiled back, "With permission we are going to fire the M1A1, Brave 51 and the M16. Let's get loaded up." They gathered the weapons and ammo, locked the armory and headed back to the firing range. They set up their current game and sent the targets to the very end of the range. Since the targets were only 200' away, scopes weren't allowed. But the game did continue for the next hour.

Finally Eric came to find them. "We are reconvening in ops in an hour." He let them know.

Deeks and Sam acknowledged Eric's statement before they looked around at the mess that surrounded them. Used targets and playing cards were scattered everywhere along with spent shell casings. Both men exhaled an unhappy sigh because their fun was over and the cleanup had to be done. Securing their current weapons and setting them aside, they started the cleanup process keeping their favorite targets.

**AN: It will probably a couple of weeks before my next post. We should be into the beginning of the operation and I want to take the time to get it right. Thanks for your patients.**


	6. Chapter 6

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

**A/N: I'm sorry. This isn't the chapter I wanted to deliver to you all, but it is what it is. I'm trying to get to the op but I dislike stories that have major jumps in time when you are writing/reading a partner story. So, I'm still working on it. Please stick with me.**

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An hour later showed everybody except Tiger's Eye back in ops. Tony was talking with Sam and Deeks, checking out their targets and talking about their shooting competition. Callen was standing just inside the door doing something on his phone and Gibbs was sitting on a chair near the big screens reading a file, his right hand convulsing as an outward sign of an internal wish for coffee.

The doors slid open and everyone turned to see who was coming in. Hetty entered first followed by Tiger's Eye. Neither of the women had been given a chance to change clothes yet and the effect on the men was similar to what had happened at the club.

Callen had placed himself next to the door on purpose. He raised his phone and took a picture of Deeks' face. He then sent the photo to Kensi, Nell, Eric, Sam and anybody else he thought might enjoy it. He turned his phone on Gibbs expecting to photograph Gibbs' reaction but as usual Gibbs' face was expressionless though Callen did notice Gibbs had tightened his jaw.

Sam, being the unflappable person that he is, was the first to recover. "Ladies, you look Stunning!"

"Thank you Sam, that is very nice of you to say." Ziva replied. Kensi kept her eyes on Deeks because he hadn't said anything yet. She was smiling and internally laughing very hard at his reaction.

There was a reason he hadn't said anything yet. He couldn't speak. He had heard the phrase "he swallowed his tongue" but had never really understood it until now. The words he wanted to say just wouldn't come out past the thick lump that was his tongue. So he just stared. Finally Sam came to his rescue, "Deeks would speak but apparently" he looked at Deeks face, "he forgot how to." He smiled as he pushed Deeks' shoulder to knock him out of his daze.

"Um…yea…You look…yea." Deeks finally stuttered.

"Eloquent Deeks," Kensi smirked at him as she and Ziva walked past him.

Deeks turned to follow their path with his eyes just as Sam was saying to him, "Don't worry about Deeks. That inability to speak is just God's way of making sure good men don't say stupid things that will make women have to shoot them." Sam chuckled at him then barked out a laugh at the sheepish yet disgusted look Deeks gave him.

"Mr. Beale if you will begin?" Hetty instructed bringing everyone's attention to the main screens. Well, almost everyone.

Eric didn't move at all when Hetty spoke to him but kept staring at Tiger's Eye. Nell looked at her partner's immobile face, rolled her eyes then pinched him under his arm to get his attention. With a jerk of his arm and yelp of pain, he came back into his head, looking at Nell with a 'what the hell' look on his face. Nell tilted her head towards Hetty showing him that he missed something.

"The briefing, Mr. Beale." Hetty said again. Callen had seen Nell roll her eyes at Eric's reaction and caught her eye and gave her his half smile as she blushed slightly and smiled back.

Eric cleared his throat and began, "So, we have the emails that the Columbians and Tiger's Eye have been sending back and forth. We've traced the IP addresses as far as we have had to time to, but it's still too general to do anything with. They are bouncing the signal all over the place but we will keep working on it. _The USS Sea Dragon_ is ahead of schedule and will dock tomorrow."

Nell continued the briefing, "We've finished the back stopping on all your IDs. Deeks, we beefed up Max a bit to explain why he hasn't been seen in a while." She handed him a file folder with the new information then continued with Tiger's Eye, "Here is all your information and new IDs." She handed much thicker folders to Kensi and Ziva. "We have eliminated everything Kensi and Ziva that we had access to. And considering the access we have, you will be safe no matter how deep anyone looks." She looked at Hetty and smiled knowing their leader would understand that she didn't risk any international agreements but did do a thorough job.

Nell continued, "Sam, here is your new ID," and she handed him his file folder.

Deeks interrupted her. "So what did they name you, Sam? Mr. Thomas?" Deeks smiled at him remembering their joke.

Sam didn't take his eyes off his file when he answered, "Reginald Johnson," just barely rising to Deeks' baiting he looked at Deeks, "You can call me Mr. Johnson."

Deeks caught the joke and smiled at the large man.

Ziva spoke up, "How did Tiger's Eye get in touch with Marco Polo? I am confused about how the communication has been happening between the three groups."

Hetty stepped in here, "A 1-900 phone number was suspected of being a cover for arms dealers to communicate with each other. Information was intercepted that Marco Polo had something to sell. Of course that was 6 months ago before they were deployed. During their deployment an internet chat site was used to actually communicate with possible buyers. Tiger's Eye had the highest bid. Tiger's Eye then reached out to some of their contacts in Mexico and were subsequently contacted and contracted by the Columbians for the purchase."

"So what's Max's connection to all of this?" Deeks asked.

"Tiger's Eye didn't have any way to transport so many SAMs. Max was contacted for transportation and logistics." Hetty replied. "Tiger's Eye has been working exclusively from Arizona and this is their first business trip to California."

Eric added, "We have been in contact with Marco Polo via the chat site. Tiger's Eye, aka us, let Marco Polo know that thanks to 'Uncle Max' Tiger's Eye has a place to stay and he _loaned_ them a truck to move their new furniture back home. We also let them know that Max would be there to help with the exchange." Eric turned back to his computer and hit a few keys so a satellite picture came up on the big screen. "This is where the exchange is going to happen. We've already had a team there to place cameras and microphones inside the building and out. We have coverage on every corner all the way around the building and we can easily tap into the traffic cams if we need to."

"When is this all supposed to happen?" Tony asked.

"Tomorrow, Tony, have you not been paying attention?" Ziva questioned.

"What time of the day tomorrow Zi—vah?" Tony snarked back.

Nell answered, "According to the Navy the _USS Sea Dragon_ is scheduled to dock in about 5 hours. That puts them in at 3am. The exchange is still set for tomorrow because of the duties Marco Polo has to handle before dis-embarking. If nothing goes wrong it takes about 12 hours before the XO is available. The meeting has been set for 5 pm tomorrow."

"So we are in a holding pattern for 19 hours?" Sam sighed. "I hate holding!"

"Not quite," Nell spoke up. "You, Deeks & Tiger's Eye have to meet before the exchange. We have placed a truck in a warehouse about ½ a mile from the exchange. I've sent the address to your new phones and you all need to meet there and pick up the truck for the exchange. All of you, be there at 4pm."

The LA team looked at Nell with a mix of admiration and something unknown; she had sounded so much like Hetty it made them do a mental double check to see who they had been talking to.

To clear the matter up Hetty spoke up from the other side of the room, "Does everyone have their tech for tomorrow? Yes? Good, then I suggest that you all go and get a good night's sleep. Everything will start tomorrow; I don't want to see Tiger's Eye or Max & Reginald back here until this over. I don't want to risk any of you being compromised. Mr. Gibbs, anything to add?" Hetty deferred.

"Yea, send the e-mail tracing to McGee and Abby. Let them work on that so these two can keep an eye on this." He pointed at Nell & Eric then waved his arm at the screens.

"Excellent idea, Mr. Gibbs. Ms. Jones, Mr. Beale let's contact D.C. in the morning. Anything else from anyone?"

It was quiet enough that everyone heard Deeks take a breath. He was about to speak up but Hetty cut him off, "Anything of value to the case, Mr. Deeks?" Deeks flushed and shook his head. "Very well, good night everyone. That includes you and Ms. Jones, Mr. Beale."

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

The next morning at 7am Callen, Tony, Nell, Eric, Gibbs and Hetty were back in ops contacting D.C. When Abby's pigtailed happy face appeared on the big screen, Eric exclaimed "Abby!"

"Hey Callen, Hi Hetty, Gibbs! What did I tell you Tony! Isn't that place great?!" Abby replied as she was signing something to Eric.

"Abs, I need you and McGee to trace some emails as fast as possible and get back to us." Gibbs let her know as Eric smiled at what Abby signed to him and forwarded her the emails.

"Sure Gibbs. McGee hobbled in here about an hour ago. Said he got a message from you to be here."

McGee's face showed on the screen next to Abby's. "Hi Boss. Whatcha need?" McGee chimed in. "Hey Eric…and the other person."

"This is Nell Jones. She's an intelligence analysis." Eric informed them.

"Hi Nell." McGee said with a shy smile as Abby smiled and waved at her. Nell smiled and waved back.

"MCGEE!" Gibbs stated when McGee continued to look at Nell.

Tony leaned over to Callen, "Makes you feel good, doesn't it? We are so important to them they can ignore us so easily?" Callen just smirked at him.

"Sorry Boss," McGee stammered, "what information do you need from these emails?"

"I need you to find out where they came from; somewhere in Columbia is our best guess. And I need it today."

"Ok, Boss. We'll get back to you before the end of the day or when we have something." McGee answered.

"You have three hours." Gibbs let him know.

"Boss, we need…Ok Boss. Call you back in 3 hours." McGee replied, deflated. He glanced once more at Nell before the video conference was disconnected.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

That same morning Ziva was awake at 4:30am. She checked on Kensi and found her out cold in her room. She was hoping to go for a run but didn't know the area well and wasn't about to run without her partner. She decided that an early morning coffee and gun cleaning would occupy her mind while she waited for Kensi to wake up.

It took another 2 ½ hours before Kensi woke up. She stumbled out of her room and into the kitchen being drawn directly to the coffee pot as if by a magnet. As she passed the kitchen table she didn't notice that Ziva had laid her 4 weapons out on the table and was meticulously cleaning one of them. She took a healthy sip of her coffee and sighed, grateful that the other women had it made already. "Thank you" she said just loud enough for Ziva to hear her.

Ziva smiled, "You are welcome. I was hoping you would have been up earlier so we could go for a run."

"I'm up for it. Give me 15 minutes to finish my coffee and change clothes." Kensi replied without turning around. When she did turn around she noticed the table covered in weapons and cleaning equipment. "Oh, you're busy. Well, how much time do you need?"

"I will be done with this one in about 5 minutes. So, 15 minutes works for me." And 15 minutes later they were leaving their safe house for a run.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Deeks woke up early as well. He was planning a morning at the beach with Monty and spending as much time as possible in the water on his surf board; thrilled that he had a morning off when the waves were so good.

Sam was similarly happy to spend the morning with his family. He was also up early but that was because his daughter decided to jump on him when she found out he was still home. He enjoyed breakfast with her and a morning playing in the back yard.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Three hours after McGee and Abby were given the assignment, they video conferenced back to LA. "Is Gibbs there?" McGee asked.

"Right here McGee." Gibbs answered as he walked into ops, large to-go coffee cup in his hand.

Nell and Eric looked at each other with the unspoken thought of _He's just like Hetty! A ninja!_

"Whatda got, McGee?"

"Well, boss, we've traced the e-mail to an area of Columbia just south of Bogota. Right now, we can't get any closer a fix, they are bouncing the signal everywhere. It still leaves an area of about 50 square miles."

Nell piped up, "WOW, how did you get such a fix so fast?"

McGee blushed a little, "Well, we started by tracing the…"

"MCGEE!" Gibbs interrupted the tech talk knowing it would go on and on until he stopped it, "Got anything else?"

"No Boss. Do you want us to keep trying to get a closer fix?" McGee asked.

"What do you think, McGee?"

"We'll keep working on it, Boss." McGee stammered just as Hetty walked into ops.

Her eyes were fixed squarely on Gibbs and his hand holding a large cup of coffee. Looking up at him and squarely in his eyes, "Mr. Gibbs, we don't allow food or drinks in ops. Too many electronics to risk it."

"It's true boss, you shouldn't have…" he stopped before completing that sentence as Gibbs broke the eye contact with Hetty to glare at his agent. "Bye boss." McGee finished and then cut the video feed.

Gibbs turned back to Hetty, "I'll be very careful." He told her while taking another sip from the cup. "See it has a lid on it."

Hetty was a little amused, "We still don't allow food or drinks in ops, no matter how careful the person is." They both felt the stares of Eric and Nell on them but didn't look in their direction.

Gibbs was not about to get into an argument with the small woman, especially not in front of her staff. Not to mention that he wasn't really sure what would happen if he pushed it. "Your OSP, your rules. I can respect that." He agreed with a smile as he left ops.

Hetty smiled after him before she turned and looked a question at her techs. Eric and Nell didn't say a word as they turned back to their screens to continue their work. Moments later they heard the doors open and Hetty leave.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

At 4pm everyone was getting in place.


	7. Chapter 7

Joint Operation

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

I was working on the next chapter and realized that there were some things I that I left out or didn't like about this chapter, so I did a quick re-write and I hope this makes sense.

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Tony and Callen were already stationed outside the location were Tiger's Eye was meeting Marco Polo. They were in a mid-sized sedan with tinted windows; chosen so that it would blend in with the local traffic.

Kensi, Ziva, Deeks & Sam had assembled in the warehouse next to the truck. As the last the minute preparations were underway, Eric was heard over the comms.

"Ok, button cameras are up and operational on Tiger's Eye. Everybody, let's have a comms check. Tony?" Eric said.

"Check." Tony replied.

"Callen?" Eric asked next.

"Loud and clear, Eric." Callen answered.

Next came Deeks then Sam. Finally it was time for Tiger's Eye.

"Kensi?"

"Check Eric. All clear." She stated.

"Ziva?"

"I hear you, Eric." Ziva answered.

"Alright Tiger's Eye, let's have a check of secondary mics. Turn off your comms and activate the mics. Remember these are just one way devices. We will be able to hear you but you can't hear us."

At this the two agents touched their ear pieces to turn off their comms. Kensi's hair was loose around her shoulders so she ran her hand through her hair. As she reached the back of her neck she touched the clasp of the necklace she was wearing which activated the microphone that was embedded in the pendent. At the same time Ziva adjusted the ponytail holder that her hair was confined it; activating the microphone that was in jeweled hair piece.

"Alright Eric do you hear me?" Kensi asked as she turned to look at Sam or Deeks for confirmation. Sam gave her the thumbs up sign. Deeks completely ignored her.

Ziva asked the same question and also looked to Sam or Deeks for the confirmation that her mic was working. Deeks still didn't notice and so Sam gave her a nod.

Kensi had noticed that Deeks was not paying attention so when the all-clear came to turn off the secondary mics and turn on their comms units, she didn't follow the instructions. Instead she said "Eric? Deeks and I are going off comms for a few minutes." She reached behind her neck and touched the clasp again, turning off her secondary mic; at the same as she grabbed Deeks by the arm and pulled him away.

Startled, Deeks looked up as she pulled him aside. "What?"

"Turn off your comms Deeks." Kensi told him. Quizzically he reached up and touched his ear piece looking at her face but not making eye contact. "What's wrong with you today, Deeks? You're off." Kensi asked him.

"I'm fine." He said scanning the area behind her effectively not making eye contact with her. "Just getting into character."

"I call bullshit. You don't let me get away with 'fine' and neither can you. Tell me what's going on." She had been maneuvering herself to try and force Deeks to look her in the eyes when he answered.

Deeks took a deep breath, lowered his gaze to the floor and growled under his breath. "I hate this guy, Kens!" His answer was quiet just loud enough for her to hear. The emotion in his voice was all too clear.

The anger in his voice still took her a little by surprise. "What guy?"

"Max! I hate him. I hate being him. I hate where I have to go to make this asshole come to life." He glanced at her face, almost making eye contact.

Kensi was silent for just a moment watching his face. "When this is over, we can ask Hetty to let us put him in a box and to NEVER have him come out again. Ok? Right now, though, we need him. Can you pull this off?" She took hold of his arms again and forced herself into his line of sight making sure their eyes met.

After a moment of eye contact and without answering her, Deeks took a deep breath and Kensi watched as he shut off everything that screamed 'Deeks' to her. Before her eyes, he became someone else. His eyes lost their sparkle and became dull, angry and empty of any emotion except anger and hate. As he pulled himself inside he let Max come out. She could feel the danger start to ooze out of him. In as cold a voice as Kensi had ever heard from her partner he said, "I'm ready. Let's go." He shook off her hands and Kensi realized-there was Max. She had heard Max over the comms during the time they were trying to find Ray, but she never saw Max before. The change startled her just a bit.

As Deeks walked away from Kensi she finally realized exactly how good at undercover work he really was. As she watched him take a few steps away from her, she was beginning to understand why Deeks hated Max so much. Max was everything Deeks didn't want to be; Kensi suspected Max was modeled after Deeks' father. As much as Deeks' hates Max she was worried that he would have trouble putting Max away when this was over.

Sam was watching the pair from a distance. He couldn't hear what was being said but watched as Deeks' body, face and even the attitude he projected changed. As he watched Deeks turn back towards him, he noticed the stiffness with which Deeks carried himself and the hard look in his eyes. Surprised by this change in the normally laid back detective, Sam nearly missed the call to start to the operation. He quickly caught Kensi's eyes and looked a question at her. She answered with a nod of her head.

As Kensi and Deeks returned, they touched their comms units turning them back on. "Eric? I'm live." Deeks said to let them know he was ready.

"I'm back too Eric." Kensi stated.

Kensi shook off her worry about her partner as everybody was given the all go. Kensi and Ziva climbed in the truck with Kensi behind the wheel. She started up the truck and left the warehouse. At the same time Sam climbed into the driver's seat of the Lexus that was on loan to them. Deeks was already sitting in the passenger seat. They followed Tiger's Eye out of the warehouse and over to the meeting location.

Up in ops, Eric had the cameras from outside the building showing on his bank of screens and all the comms units recording. Nell was sitting next to him, doing things on her tablet. Gibbs stood behind them watching them work on their computers vaguely wondering what they both could be doing when there wasn't anything happening yet. "Callen," Gibbs called out, "Do you have a visual on Marco Polo?"

Callen and Tony were sitting in their un-remarkable car with the tinted windows. Several large trucks had passed them but none of the trucks had yet to turn into the warehouse parking lot. Gibbs had asked Callen but it was Tony who answered. "Boss, are we sure they're bringing the SAMs with them? I mean, there are a lot of big trucks around here, but not one has gone into the warehouse lot."

"Eric, check all the cameras inside the warehouse, infrared and all. I want to know if anybody is in there." Gibbs stated.

Hetty moved forward to stand behind Eric at the same time Callen & Tony turned to look at each other with concern. "Boss, your gut telling you something?" Tony asked. Gibbs didn't respond but both Tony and Callen had learned that sometimes what Gibbs doesn't say is just as important as what he does say and their tension increased 10 fold.

Eric complied with Gibbs order, "Bringing up the inside cameras; nothing showing so far." Eric leaned over to Nell, "Nell, you got anything on the mics?"

"There are some noises in there, but I can't get a bead on it," said the red-headed pixie. "I need to switch to the acoustic filters." She moved over to a different computer, put on headphones are started another analysis.

Switching to the infrared cameras, Eric piped up, "Guy's we have a problem. I'm picking up 5 heat signatures inside the building. They're spread out around the perimeter." Hitting a series of keys on his computer, "Infrared cameras are on the big screen." Everyone in ops except Nell looked at the big screen. There were definitely 5 people spread out around the perimeter of the building, 3 on the lower level and 2 on the 2nd level catwalk that ran around the perimeter of the building. Apparently all of them were out of site behind crates or equipment.

The agents in the field all tensed. As Callen considered this information he noticed that a paving crew in the opposite corner's parking lot hadn't done any actual work. "Eric, check all the cameras in the area of the northeast corner from our current position. I don't think they're actually a paving crew."

Eric brought up the video. It wasn't Eric that answered, "You are correct, Mr. Callen. That's not a paving crew. There's no conversation, nobody is giving instructions and they are just going through the motions." Hetty stated as she turned her head to gaze at Gibbs.

Everyone tensed, Tony added to the conversation, "How many local LEOs should be in this area? I have counted 3 different pairs in the last 20 minutes."

"I don't like this," Sam added, "too many changes to the area."

Kensi took the initiative to pull the truck over to the side of the road as she stated, "I'm stopping. What's the call? Do this or not?" Sam pulled over right behind her. They were 4 blocks from the warehouse with 35 minutes until the meeting.

Up in ops Nell returned to her original position and sat next to Eric, "I can't get anything clear on the mics. They were whispering to each other or not talking at all."

"Ms. Jones, did you get any video of the 6 LAPD officers and the paving crew?" Nell checked the video feed. When she nodded affirmative, Hetty continued; "Run facial recognition on everyone one around that warehouse." Nell nodded again and got to work.

"Ziva," Gibbs questioned, "what's your take?"

Before answering his question, Ziva looked at her partner for a visual conversation. Unfortunately, they had not been partners long enough for her to read Kensi. "I think we should continue. We know they are in there, but they don't know that we are aware of their presence. What is the total body count right now?"

Nell answered her, "5 in the warehouse, 6 LAPD & a paving crew of 7. Anybody see any others?"

When nobody answered Sam spoke up, "18 people? With some of them dressed as LAPD? This isn't right!"

Gibbs agreed with Sam, "Everybody HOLD position." Gibbs looked over to Hetty and raised an eyebrow at her.

She gave a slight nod of her head in agreement. "We need to know who these people are."

Before anybody else spoke Nell's surprised voice was heard from, "I started with the ones dressed as LAPD and I've already got a hit off the LAPD database!" On a smaller screen, three pictures popped up, "These are LAPD officers Mark Planter, Jose Garcia & Carlos Martinez. All with the LAPD for 5 – 7 years. Records are pretty clean." Nell added.

"I know Martinez. He's a good cop." Deeks added.

Hetty let out sigh, "Mr. Deeks is there any way he could be involved in something illegal?"

"No, I don't think so." Deeks answered.

"So where does that leave us?" Sam asked.

There was a pregnant pause before there was an answer. "It leaves us going ahead with this op. It has to be done." Gibbs answered as he looked over to Hetty.

Hetty nodded her agreement back to Gibbs. "Mr. Callen, you and Mr. DiNozzo are going to have to get inside the warehouse without being seen. I want you inside in case things deteriorate."

"Copy that" Callen answered. "Kens, give us 5 minutes to get inside before continuing. That will still put you all in time to make the meet."

"Eric? Do we have a clear shot to the building and what are our best options to get in?" DiNozzo asked before getting out of the car; both were already in full tactical gear.

Eric was tense but still calm when he answered. "Hold. The area is not clear. Nell, keep an eye on the infrared. Check their positions. Let me know when they aren't watching the window. Tony, your best chance for a quiet entry is…south side of the building, 2nd floor window off the fire escape. The cameras show it's broken. It looks like…" He gave a quick check to the paving crew and judged that this was probably their best chance, "Go NOW!" Tony & Callen vaulted from their car and started to make their way across the street and around the back side of the building. Eric continued to talk as the agents made their way out of site of the paving crew, "Wait for my signal before going in the window. Get in quietly and you should have a good view of the main floor. But you won't have much a view for 2nd floor."

When Callen and DiNozzo reached the back of the building but before they ascended the fire stairs, Callen quietly let everyone know "Once we get in there we will maintain radio silence. Eric, we're going to head up the stairs and hold for your go." He and Tony quietly made it up the stairs and positioned themselves on either side of the window.

Gibbs turned back to Nell, "Is anyone else coming up on the facial recs?"

"Yep, the last three are all LAPD officers, minor complaints but nothing to raise a flag about."

"Mr. Deeks, call LAPD and find out why they're here." Hetty said.

"On it." Deeks said while pulling out his phone and dialing. It took more than the 5 minutes Callen suggested and definitely longer than anybody would have liked but Deeks finally got off the phone. "According to Lt. Bates, they are in the area because of the large number of break-ins in the area that have happened during the day; heightened LAPD patrols. Hetty, he's going to call you." As if on a signal, Hetty's cell phone rang.

She answered, "Lt. Bates, what can I do for you?" She walked off to have a semi-private conversation with Lt. Bates.

As Hetty was talking to LAPD, a pair of LEOs opened one of the doors of the warehouse and scanned the open area with his flashlight. As this was going on, Nell saw all the infrared images on the screen turn toward the door the LEOs were entering. Her quiet call of "Eric," gained Eric's attention and everyone else's as well. Everyone is ops turned to look at the screen showing the images.

"Callen, Tony, get ready." Eric prepared them. As the LEOs left and the door closed Eric told them to move at the exact same second that Tony & Callen moved using the sound of the door closing to help cover their movements as they entered the window and took cover.

After a few minutes had passed, Ziva questioned, "Is this operation going to continue? We are running out of time."

"Hold for now, Ziva" was the only answer she received from Gibbs.

Five minutes turned into 10 minutes as everyone waited and the tension grew. They could hear Hetty's voice raising just a bit as she talked to LAPD. They also could mentally hear the clock tick the seconds away before Hetty spoke again as she closed her phone and put it in her pocket. "Lt. Bates is going to call off the patrols for the next hour."

Another 5 minutes passed, "Mr. Beale? Are the patrols still in the area and are Mr. Callen and Mr. DiNozzo in place?" Hetty asked.

After he checked all the outside cameras, "No, I don't see any LAPD in the area. Tony and Callen are in place and waiting. They are maintaining radio silence." he answered.

Hetty checked the clock on the wall and verified that there was still 10 minutes before the meeting. "If everyone is in position, we are GO. But Mr. Beale, keep an eye on that paving crew. If they move, we need to know it." Hetty answered.

With a look of apprehension to her partner, Kensi started up the truck and pulled back into traffic. Sam was right behind her. Eight minutes later they pulled into the warehouse.


	8. Chapter 8

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING. Oh but if I did…*grin*

Thank you to TurquoiseDragonfly for the help. Couldn't do it without you and you know it.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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_Last Chapter:_

_Hetty checked the clock on the wall and verified that there was still 10 minutes before the meeting. "If everyone is in position, we are GO. But Mr. Beale, keep an eye on that paving crew. If they move, we need to know it." Hetty answered._

_With a look of apprehension to her partner, Kensi started up the truck and pulled back into traffic. Sam was right behind her. Eight minutes later they pulled into the warehouse._

**888888888888888888888888**

Kensi & Ziva pulled into the warehouse and stopped about 30 feet from the center of the warehouse. Sam pulled parallel to the outside of the door, set for a quick exit in case it became necessary. They met at the truck, each on a side of the truck; all facing out.

Several minutes passed before another truck entered the building. It was of equal size to the truck Tiger's Eye brought with them. It stopped about 30 feet from the NCIS team. Two men got out of the front of the truck and two came out of the back. All 4 men moved to stand in front of their truck.

The two men that came out of the back of the truck looked to be hired muscle. Both men were on the short side and stocky. By the way they held themselves it was evident that they knew how to inflict pain and had no trouble doing it. The other two men were definitely military. Their stance, the way their eyes scanned the perimeter and their confidence definitely gave them away as military. Both of the military men were taller than the hired muscle.

"Camille" Kensi called to bring Ziva around to her side of the truck. As Ziva moved to Kensi's right side, Deeks & Sam flanked Tiger's Eye. Deeks stayed back and to the left of Kensi, Sam took up a similar position on Ziva's right. Both men were staying just far enough away from the women to let Tiger's Eye do their business but close enough to help or intervene if the need arose.

"You're Tiger's Eye?" One of the military men asked while eyeing the two women.

"Marco Polo?" Ziva questioned in reply.

"Yea. Did you bring the money?"

"Did you bring the merchandise?" Ziva countered. The tension between the two groups was intense. Everybody was basically poised to strike at a moment's notice; yet no one moved.

"Let's see the stuff." Kensi added indicating with her hands she wanted to see what they were buying before anything else was done.

Kensi looked to Deeks and nodded her head telling him that she wanted him to follow her. When she started to move toward the back of the truck Deeks stepped forward to follow her. Ziva, Sam & the two hired muscles stayed facing each other as Marco Polo went with Kensi to the back of the truck.

At the back of the truck, Marco Polo revealed the weapons. "How do I know these will work? How do I know we're buying quality?" Kensi asked.

The officer in the group, the one that spoken earlier, replied with cheekiness, "I give you my word as a military officer." He stepped closer to her. Invading her personal space and smiled at her with what he thought was a seductive leer.

"Well, then that just makes all the difference doesn't it? You being military and all." She stepped back to give herself a little more room. She could feel the tension flow out of Deeks and didn't want him doing anything foolish_._ She started to take a 2nd step back but the officer put his hand on her face trying to grab the back of her head. Before he could get that far, Kensi had him down on the ground in a wrist lock similar to what Ziva had used on Deeks during the training session. At the moment she started to move, Deeks drew his weapon, stepped forward and placed his weapon against the petty officer's head.

When the sound of the XO's face hitting the ground was heard and the movements from behind the truck detected, Ziva & Sam drew their weapons at the same time the muscle men pulled theirs.

"Jennifer?" Ziva asked.

"Camille?" Kensi shouted to her partner.

"What is happening back there? Things are rather tense at the moment." Ziva answered.

"Oh, the idiot tried to paw me." Kensi casually replied.

"Is he still breathing?" Ziva asked with a small half smile on her face and one raised eyebrow.

"Yep, he just has a sore wrist and possibly a black eye. But I don't think he'll try it again. Will you?" Kensi directed her question to the man she currently had under her foot and whose wrist suddenly hurt more when he didn't answer right away.

"No, it won't." His answer was barely heard as it was mumbled against the pavement his face was currently plastered too.

"Then I think we're done with this stupidity." Kensi said as she took her foot off the back of his neck before she released him from the wrist lock.

As he stood up and worked the pain out of his wrist, he announced "She's right." He gave her a cocky grin, "Shall we continue with business?"

Kensi didn't look anywhere but at the XO but her voice was directed to her partner, "Cam, put your gun away. We need to get this done."

"I will when they do." Was her reply.

Kensi raised her eyes at the man in front of her. The XO answered the command, "Everybody secure your weapons. We have work to do." Cautiously everyone stood down.

Kensi, Deeks & Marco Polo all came back to the front of the trucks resuming their previous positions. "So do you have the money?" The XO asked again.

Camille went over to the passenger side of their truck and pulled out a large briefcase. She walked to the halfway point between the two groups; laid the case on the ground and opened it up. She left it there on the ground, opened and facing Marco Polo and she backed away.

The XO indicated that one of the muscle men get the case. As he moved forward, Max spoke "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Everyone stopped and looked at Deeks. "Let's get the weapons moved first. We can leave the case right where it is until we are done."

"I want to check to make sure that all the money is there. You wouldn't deny us that chance right?" XO spoke.

With that Camille stepped forward and pulled two batches of money out of the case and tossed them to the XO. "Is this good enough for you?" She asked him as she stepped back to Kensi's side.

He checked the piles of money that she tossed him. He eyed her skeptically before checking that each bill was there and the count in the pile accurate. When he was satisfied, he made a suggestion, "Let's just exchange trucks. I really don't have time to move the weapons from truck to truck and this way we are all out of here in time for dinner."

Kensi and Ziva exchanged a look, "ok with us but this truck isn't ours. It's his." She pointed over to Deeks. "What do you say, trade?"

Deeks looked over at the truck, shrugged one shoulder and nodded his head.

"Excellent." The XO said, "now that that's done, let's **PARTY**!" He emphasized the last word and suddenly there were 5 men in full tactical gear labeled 'ONI' on their chests standing up and yelling.

As the men erupted from their hiding places Callen & Tony also stood up showing their tactical gear labeled 'NCIS' as everyone else-Tiger's Eye, Marco Polo, Sam, Deeks and both muscle men pulled weapons out and pointed them at each other. Everyone was shouting "FEDERAL AGENTS DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

When the words 'Federal Agents! Drop your weapons' were heard in ops by more than just her agents and after seeing the others in full tactical gear, Hetty immediately went into action and told everybody to hold their positions.

Gibbs added, "Eric zoom in on one of the other 5 men. I want to see their equipment." Eric zeroed in on one of the men closest to Callen. "They're Office of Naval Intelligence! Hetty?"

Gibbs turned to see Hetty had already pulled out her cell phone and was dialing the Director "Leon, we have a problem."

She was speaking with the Director of NCIS and Callen was surveying the group around him. He had realized that they wore the ONI insignia but that didn't mean that's who they really were. "NCIS hold positions until further notice. Do not provoke." Callen quietly said through his ear piece.

Several excruciating minutes later, Hetty could be heard over their ear pieces, "Mr. Callen, ONI's code word is 'quagmire'. This will let them know you are not a threat."

Callen repeated the word loudly enough to carry over the entire warehouse; followed by "NCIS stand down". He kept his weapon out to be safe and started to make his way around the catwalk and down to the first level. He signaled Tony to go the opposite direction to find his own way down. Both NCIS agents picked up an ONI agent on the way down.

When all 4 men made it to the first level they noticed that all weapons were still out but lowered however everyone was still poised for a fight.

"Everyone calm down." Callen tried to defray the situation as he took the initiative and put his weapon away. A few moments passed in silence as everyone looked at each other. Finally everyone secured their weapons. "Office of Naval Intelligence, what're you doing here?" Callen asked.

"What's NCIS doing here?" answered the belligerent XO.

"Trying to catch naval personnel selling weapons which by the way is bad enough, but that those weapons might end up in Hezbollah or Hamas hands or even a cartels hands makes it worse." Callen answered as he was getting angry at what was happening.

"And we were trying to catch a weapons dealer that had ties to those same terrorists, turn them and make them work for us." XO answered. "We've been working this op for almost a year! And you blew it!" Now the XO was yelling.

"Calm down everybody," Sam said. "We need to work this out and yelling is going to help. Why don't you pull your guys from the paving crew in and let's work this out."

The petty officer was finally heard from, "we don't have anyone outside. We had everyone stationed inside."

"Boss, you getting this?" Tony asked Gibbs.

"Yea, DiNozzo, I hear it. Eric, do you still have eyes on the paving crew?"

Eric answered him, "Yes, they haven't moved. They haven't done any work either. I'm seeing bulges where weapons could be hidden." He had Gibbs attention and when Gibbs leaned over his shoulder, Eric pointed out what he was seeing.

Gibbs confirmed Eric suspicions, "yea, Tony, they have weapons."

"Wait, so they aren't with you?" Deeks asked.

"No genius, they aren't with us," answered the petty officer.

"Hetty? What's the call? What're we doing?" This came from Callen.

"Hetty? As in Henriette Lange?" The XO asked. Callen just nodded at him with a smirk. The XO's eyes increased in size slightly and whistled in appreciation as to the caliber they were working with.

While the exchange of money for merchandise was happening, Nell had continued to run facial recognition on the paving crew. "I think I can help with that," she said. "I have 5 of the 7 paving crew facial recs up." She put them on the main screen. "They are all former Syrians. They emigrated here in early 2001. The last two are more bothersome. I'm having trouble finding them in any database I have access too." For the NCIS team, this was cause for more than a little concern. Especially after the deep background work she did on Ziva and Kensi.

"Ok, this is what we have so far," Callen said to the other group. "We have 5 Syrians outside and 2 more that we don't anything about. They're not yours and they're not ours."

Sam knew his partner well enough to that look. "You have an idea."

"Yea, let this operation continue. We take cover again and they leave", he pointed to Marco Polo. "After they leave, we see what happens when it's just the 4 of you left."

"Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked.

"It makes sense. Let's flush them out and see who they are." The XO added.

"Hopefully it's not more of our alphabet soup." Deeks supplied with a touch of cheek. That made Kensi and Tony smile just a little.

Callen addressed the XO, "You up for this? We will need your men to stay here." The XO nodded his agreement. Callen continued, "Eric, can you find their frequency and patch us in so we have comms?"

"Working on it Callen."

"Let's finish this part of the operation and get set for the next part of it. Sam, you and Deeks need to position yourselves outside when you leave. Somewhere you can see what's going on." Callen indicated.

"Callen, I have patched ONI into our comms. Everyone is hot." Eric let them know.

"Thanks Eric, let's go everybody." He left to resume his former position followed by Tony and the other 5 ONI agents.


	9. Chapter 9

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Thank you to the wonderful TurquoiseDragonfly ( u/4535068/TurquoiseDragonfly). You have been beyond helpful and you know it.

As well as xnothinghere ( u/2348055/xnothinghere) Thanks for the help.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**

_LAST CHAPTER:_

"_Let's finish this part of the operation and get set for the next part of it. Sam, you and Deeks need to position yourselves outside when you leave. Somewhere you can see what's going on." Callen indicated. _

"_Callen, I have patched ONI into our comms. Everyone is hot." Eric let them know._

"_Thanks Eric, let's go everybody." He left to resume his former position followed by Tony and the other 5 ONI _

_agents_.

_8888888888888888888888888888 88888888888888888_

While Callen headed back to take cover, he informed the remaining teams of his plan. "Ok, this is how we are going to do this. Marco Polo, there tracking devices on the SAMs correct?"

"No! We were supposed to arrest Tiger's Eye and turn them so they'd lead us to their buyer. We would have put tracking devices in when the delivery was supposed to happen." The XO replied.

Sam was irate, "YOU DIDN'T PUT TRACKING DEVICES ON A DOZEN U.S. MADE SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES?!"

"Of course not, there are only three viable SAMs in there. The rest are boxes filled with junk to make the weight correct." Try to defend their actions, "Again we were going to arrest them and turn them. Not really supply them."

Every member of NCIS glared at the XO before Callen spoke up, "Kens, Ziva you are going to be the bait. We are going…" Before he could finish, Nell interrupted him.

"Sorry Callen, but I have IDs on the last two and you aren't going to like this. They are on Interpol's most wanted list. Adad Oommen and Sargon Ninan. Syrian. No one knows how long they have been in the country. Interpol lost them more than 3 years ago and no one has heard from them since. But they were thought to be the master minds behind 5 different bombings in Turkey, Jordon & Saudi Arabia. There is no record of them entering the U.S."

Callen, Tony and the ONI agents resumed their hidden positions as Nell was giving them this information. When she was done, Callen continued with the instructions, "Thanks Nell. Ok people, we need to find out if this is the entire cell or if there are more people out there and what their target is. Tiger's Eye? We are going to be in place to make sure they don't get trigger happy, but you need to get them talking if you can or get close enough to them for your mics to pick them up. Eric, do you have any way to track them if they leave with the SAMs?"

"The only way for me track them if they leave the warehouse are the traffic cams on whatever route they take. But it's spotty Callen. There aren't traffic cams everywhere."

"That will have to do Eric." Callen shot the XO another withering look. "Sam," once the ex-SEAL raised a look to him, Callen tossed him the keys to the car he and Tony had used. "Park the Lexus behind the building, leave the keys in it. Make your way to our car and use it to follow them." Sam nodded his understanding so Callen continued, "Hetty, Marco Polo is leaving; any instructions for them?"

"Yes, Mr. Callen. They are to report to their Director." Hetty sternly answered. "Your request to have the ONI agents remain to assist you has been approved."

Frustrated that their operation was shot to hell and that they were being removed from further action pertaining to this op, the 4 members of the Marco Polo team piled into the empty truck and left the warehouse. Deeks had a silent conversation with Kensi, letting her know that they would be close, before they too got in their car and Sam drove them away. Kensi and Ziva climbed into the back of the truck to check the weapons and wait for whatever was going to happen next.

They didn't have to wait long. Eric came over the comms, "they're on the move; looks like they will be coming through the main overhead doors with weapons at the ready."

Tiger's Eye finished checking the weapons and acting as naturally as possible, they waited until they heard from Eric that the 'crew' was close to the back of the truck. Tiger's Eye started to climb out of the truck, pretending to be caught by surprise they allowed themselves be surrounded.

With the men surrounding them and guns pointed at them, they didn't move to do anything except to put their hands up.

As the combined NCIS/ONI team stood and again started yelling "Federal Agents! Drop Your Weapons," two of the 'crew' stood their ground and started firing at the agents, the rest jumped into the truck pulling Kensi & Ziva into the back as human shields. When the men that got in the cab saw their comrades killed by the agents they fired up the truck to exit the warehouse.

As the truck was pulling away, nobody was shooting at it for fear of hitting the weapons or hitting Tiger's Eye.Callen's voice was heard on the comms, "Sam, Deeks they have Kensi & Ziva in the back of the truck; follow them and Eric, don't lose them."

"On it Callen." Eric informed them as he started to bring up the appropriate cameras.

******Author's Note: **The remainder of this chapter is strictly Tiger's Eye's POV. Different chapters will be for the same time period except from other POVs until all our heroes are reunited. On with the story!*********

Tiger's Eye endured an uncomfortable journey, hands tied behind their backs bouncing against the truck's unforgiving walls. Their captors were obviously not the brains of the cell refused to engage in conversation. The silence was broken only occasionally by the reassuring contact from ops. An hour later the truck pulled into another warehouse, more run down than the first. Tiger's Eye were pulled from the truck, lead down a short flight of stairs and bundled through a door into a tiny windowless room. An empty janitor's closed judging from the quick glance they managed before the door slammed and locked behind them, maybe six foot square and pitch black. When they heard their captors leave back up the stairs Kensi asked, "Eric? Can you hear us?".

"Ba…ly. Where … you?" came Eric's broken answer.

"Some sort of a closet on the lower level of a warehouse about an hour from where we started. Ziva can you add anything?"

"No. I could not hear or see anything after the back of the truck was closed."

"Eric? You getting this?"

"Y.. … Br..king up. K…i! W…. … you? Can you …. Me?" Eric's voice came back to them.

Before they could answer Eric, the door was opened and they were pulled out and taken back upstairs and made to stand in front of a man who was sitting on the edge of an old desk. There were 7 men flanking him on either side.

He nodded his head toward one of the men. The man stepped forward and started to search them. He got a little handy while searching Ziva so she placed a fast and hard side-kick to the inside of his knee. There was a sickening 'crack' as it broke and he went down with a cry grasping at his leg. Another man stepped forward and punched Ziva on the left side of her head. The blow staggered her back a step and forced her head to whip around.

Ziva could feel Kensi tense in readiness prepared to follow Ziva's lead whatever it was. Before Ziva could continue attacking the men around them, someone yelled "Stop!" All the men stopped in their tracks but Tiger's Eye remained at the ready.

Ziva had hoped that no one had noticed her earwig fly out when she took the blow but the hope of futile. The man, who Tiger's Eye figured was the group's leader, stepped forward and picked it off the ground. The leader studied what was in his hand as the guy with the broken knee was dragged away.

He realized what he was looking at and quickly checked Kensi for one as well. When he found it, he pulled it out of her ear, causing Kensi to clinch her jaw tight in pain at the unexpected removal of the small object.

His eyes turned deadly when he asked "Who are you?" When neither woman answered him; he smiled as he looked each of them in the eyes. "Well, these are very small and very expensive. I think you are federal agents. Yes?"

He shrugged his shoulders when neither woman answered him. "No matter; whoever you are and whoever is listening, know that you are now hostages and if we do not get out of here you are going to die sooner rather than later." He started to laugh as he dropped the earwigs on the ground and crushed them into pieces under his boot heel. He lost all of the false humor he had been showing them as he finished the search of Ziva and Kensi and ordered them thrown back into the janitor's closet.

When they were back in the closet and the door had been shut and locked, they were once again plunged into complete darkness. They each exhaled a pent up breath; preparing for whatever was to come next. They sat down on the floor hoping that they were facing each other. "We need to get our secondary mics turned on. At least then ops can hear us." Kensi said.

Ziva scooted around until she felt Kensi's leg next to her own. "Which leg am I touching?" Ziva asked.

"Left leg."

She scooted around until she was able to place her entire leg next to Kensi's, "Ok, that's my left leg as well. Can you stand up and try and reach my hair holder?"

"I'll give it a try." After a couple of attempts to get up she managed to stand up but now she was disorientated and unsure where Ziva was. "Ok, where are you?"

"Feel around until you find me," Ziva suggested. This was a good idea until Kensi fell face forward onto Ziva's lap. "Ouch! Well that did not work out so well."

"I think it worked out well; after all I found you. Now I just have to get off you."

"I am very glad Tony is not here to see this." Ziva said just before inspiration hit, "Wait. Can you just slide off of me? It feels like you are lying face down, yes?"

"Yea, so?" Kensi answered being equally grateful that Deeks was not there to see what was happening either.

"Just slide off but keep close so I do not lose you. As long as you are lying down and I know where you are, I can try to reach your necklace." Without comment Kensi slid off Ziva's lap doing her best not to lose contact.

"Ok, try to reach it." Kensi encouraged when she was face down on the floor.

Ziva turned so her back was to Kensi and tried to stretch her arms out so she could try and reach the clasp. Unfortunately she was just a little shy of reaching it. "This is not working." Stopping her efforts for a moment to think she decided to lay down on Kensi so they were back to back.

"Well, this is just weird," came Kensi's muffled voice. Ziva continued to wiggle around on top of her when Kensi had her own wave of inspiration, "Ziva stop for a second." When Ziva stopped moving, Kensi continued, "Swing your legs around so they're on either side of my head."

"Excuse me?" Ziva's voice raised a little.

"If your legs are on either side of my head should put your hands right about at my neck level. You should be able to reach the clasp on my necklace. Then if you can make your way down to my hands, I can try to turn on your mic."

"Oh, yes, that does make sense." Ziva started to try to move into position only to hear Kensi grunt as the movement further forced her face into the floor.

"Ziva! Stop!"

"What is wrong now?"

"I need to breath and I don't even want to think about what's on this floor. Hang on a second while I peel my face off it."

"This is not exactly comfortable for me either."

"Stop complaining; at least you're on TOP! There has to be an easier way to do this."

"This was your idea." Ziva snapped back.

"It was half your idea too. Do you have a better one? 'Cause right now I'd take it."

"No. Are you ready yet?" Ziva questioned.

Kensi answered with a groaned "no, but let's just get this over with." She placed her right cheek back against the floor as Ziva continued to search of the clasp.

With a little more wiggling on Ziva's part, she finally found the clasp and pressed it to turn it on. "I really really hope these mics work down here. What part of you am I laying my head on?" For an answer Kensi tapped her on the top of her head with her fingers. "Can you reach my hair tie from there?"

Kensi peeled her face off the floor again, "No, your ponytail is sitting between my wrists. Can you move farther down?"

"Just give me a moment. Let me know when you can reach it." A few seconds later a loud "Ouch, you did not need to pull my hair, Kensi!" broke the silence of the room.

If Deeks had been there he would have heard the humor in Kensi's voice when she answered, "I was just testing to see if you've moved close enough. Hang on while I see if I can find the on button." She fumbled around, pulling at Ziva's hair until she thought she had found the hidden button. "Found it, I think. I hope I've turned it on."

"I do as well."

When Kensi stopped moving her hands she waited a few moments but Ziva didn't move. "Ziva, could you get your butt off my head now, please?"

"Oh, yes. Sorry." She started to sit up so she could stand up but stopped her movements after hearing the pained grunt come out of Kensi.

"ROLL off of me please." Kensi urged.

Ziva rolled off her partner and then struggled to a sitting position while doing her best not to accidently kick Kensi. Kensi rolled on to her back and thanked the Lord that she had kept up with the extra crunches as she used her abdominal muscles to pull herself into a sitting position.

"I'm very glad nobody else was here to witness _that_ little entanglement. At least you didn't have to wrap your legs around one of the guy's heads." Kensi said forgetting that they'd just switched on their secondary mics and that the everyone in ops was listening to the exchange.

"That is very true." Kensi thought she heard a smile in her partner's voice. But it was missing when she continued, "Now how shall we get out of here?"


	10. Chapter 10

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Thank you to the wonderful TurquoiseDragonfly ( u/4535068/TurquoiseDragonfly). You have been beyond helpful and you know it.

As well as xnothinghere ( u/2348055/xnothinghere) Thanks for the help.

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**

_Last Chapter:_

_As the combined NCIS/ONI team stood and again started yelling "Federal Agents! Drop Your Weapons," two of the 'crew' stood their ground and started firing at the agents, the rest jumped into the truck pulling Kensi & Ziva into the back as human shields. When the men that got in the cab saw their comrades killed by the agents they fired up the truck to exit the warehouse._

_As the truck was pulling away, nobody was shooting at it for fear of hitting the weapons or hitting Tiger's Eye. Callen's voice was heard on the comms, "Sam, Deeks they have Kensi & Ziva in the back of the truck; follow them and Eric, don't lose them."_

"_On it Callen." Eric informed them as he started to bring up the appropriate cameras._

**888888888888888888888888888**

Deeks & Sam sat in the darkened car watching as the truck peeled out of the warehouse as fast as it could. They waited for a couple of minutes as Eric informed them of the direction the truck took. They pulled out and followed the directions Eric gave them looking for the truck the entire time.

"Eric! We don't see them yet. Where are they?" Deeks announced tensely.

"They're 3 blocks ahead, making a right hand turn onto Alameda St. They're headed south." Eric replied.

There was a sudden loud crash through the comms units as three cars crashed into each other on Chavez & Olivera blocking their path. Sam let them know, "Eric, we're stuck behind an accident. We're fine but don't lose them. We'll catch up as soon as we can."

"Got it Sam," he sounded a little annoyed, "but they are headed into an area without a lot of traffic cams and the ones there hardly ever work. The folks in this area don't like Big Brother very much." Eric retorted. Several frustrating minutes for Deeks and Sam passed before Eric was heard from again. "Damn it! I lost them somewhere between Olympic & Washington. Checking all traffic cams in the surrounding area."

"Eric," Callen commented from the warehouse where he and Tony were dealing with the aftermath of the shoot-out. "Put out a BOLO. Let's let LAPD help us find these guys."

"I'm doing it Callen," Nell replied for her very busy partner.

"I'm checking all the local cameras that I have immediate access to. There's nothing yet." Eric's slightly dejected voice was heard even though his fingers never stopped flying over the keyboards.

Gibbs growled low in his throat, "Find them Beale!" The threat was obvious to everyone on comms. Eric paled at the threat but he hadn't stopped accessing ATM cameras and any security cameras he could hack.

Sam could be heard, "Eric, how many cameras are we talking about it?"

"About 130 cameras in a 30 block radius of where they were lost. I'm starting with the ones closest to where we last had them. But if they turned into another warehouse or changed trucks…" He let the statement stop there because nobody needed further explanation.

Gibbs was frustrated that all with great technology that was available to them, they still lost the truck. He was about to make another implied threat when he was cut off. "Mr. Gibbs, I'm sure Mr. Beale and Ms. Jones will find them. We need to discuss what to do when they are found. Shall we talk in my office?" Hetty asked knowing she needed to get him out of ops so her team could do what they did best. When he hesitated she continued with a bribe she knew he couldn't resist, "You can have coffee in my office or if you prefer I have a wonderful tea Mr. Callen & Mr. Hanna brought me from Afghanistan."

Gibbs turned his icy gaze on the small woman meeting her directly in her eyes. He'd used that very same glare to weaken hardened criminals into confessions but for some reason it wasn't intimidating this particular operation manager. "I'm going for coffee. I'll meet you in your office in 15 minutes."

He said it like a statement but before he could leave Hetty answered him as if he asked a question. "Yes, Mr. Gibbs that will work well." Gibbs looked once more at the pair of tech and then left ops. Hetty turned to Eric and Nell, "I suggest you do everything to find our missing agents. Gentlemen," she announced to Callen et al, "meet us back here as soon as possible unless Mr. Beale & Ms. Jones find that truck." She made eye contact with both Nell & Eric before she turned to leave as well.

"Acknowledged Hetty," Sam agreed.

"Almost done here; then Tony & I will be back. Kensi, Ziva: Hang in there, we're coming." Callen silently hoped Tiger's Eye could hear him. He caught Tony's eye and the grim look on the other Senior Field Agent's face increased Callen own worry about Tiger's Eye's safety.

Fifteen minutes later, Gibbs was sitting opposite Hetty in her office. "Mr. Gibbs, I would appreciate it if you didn't attempt to threaten my techs. They are exceptional at their jobs and will find Ms. Blye and Ms. David."

"They lost a truck full of weapons and two agents. My confidence level isn't real high right now."

"Excuse me, Hetty." Nell quietly interrupted them. "Agent Gibbs, Abby & Tim have something you need to hear. They're on the screen in ops."

Gibbs gave a quick small smile to Hetty as if to say _that's my team; coming through when we need them!_ Then he bounded out of the chair & up to ops; coffee still in his hand. Hetty & Nell followed him quickly yet at their own pace.

The door slid open in front of Gibbs "What'da got Abbs?"

"Gibbs! McGee and I found something major! I mean MAJOR! So major it's a Major General! Or just a General but maybe even a 2 Star General!" Hetty and Nell walked into ops but even though Gibbs noticed their arrival he didn't acknowledge it.

"To the point, Abby."

"McGee and I finished the back trace on the e-mails, Gibbs. They didn't come from Columbia! They bounce the signal all over the world but mostly in Columbia to make it look that way, but we hacked our way through all the proxy servers and, I mean there were a lot Gibbs! It was like a maze at a fun house only this wasn't so much fun as important because of what they wanted, but Gibbs those emails had been routed through like 30 different servers and then we"

"ABBS!"

"The e-mails originated in LA Gibbs! From right where you are now. Well, not right there in ops, but in LA. At a cyber-café on 11th & Burlington."

"Good work Abbs; glad somebody's doing their job."

"What do you mean? Did someone get hurt? Oh my God, Tony?! Did something happen to Tony? Or Ziva? What happened!?"

"Abby, calm down." Gibbs said in a placating voice. "As far as we know, everybody is fine."

"As far as you know?! That's not good enough Gibbs. You have to bring them home." She turned her cyber-gaze directly to Eric, "Eric! What is going on? I want answers!" Eric kept his head down, looking up over his glasses at the screen but he kept working.

"Abby, was there anything else?" Gibbs asked.

She shifted her eyes back to Gibbs as McGee answered him, "Boss, I found the IP addresses of both parties. I've already sent them to Eric."

"Good work McGee. Abby, put a CafePow on my tab."

"Ah, Gibbs! That so sweet. Thank You! But that doesn't get you off the hook, you bring everybody home. I can't handle another one Gibbs."

Her sad and worried face didn't change when he said "Doing our best here Abbs." And the connection was broken.

"Beale, can you trace those address things or should we get Abby back and have her continue to do your job?"

Eric was about to answer him but Nell had had enough of Gibbs. "Agent Gibbs, Eric is the best. If it's possible to find them electronically, he will." Eric hid a smile at the compliment and his partner's confidence in him.

Gibbs turned his glare on her. It was same glare he had tried on Hetty earlier and just like the operations manager, it didn't seem to affect the red-headed pixie either.

Outwardly, Nell wasn't affected by the glare, but inwardly she was shrinking until she remembered two very important things: 1. She had Hetty standing next to her and 2: she had stared down Asst. Director Granger. That memory brought an extra stiffness to her spine and she glared back at him. She pointed to his hand that was holding the coffee cup, "Coffee in ops, Agent Gibbs?"

He was impressed and disconcerted at the same time. Her spunk surprised him. He broke the glare and smiled at her "Yea." He turned and as he was leaving ops said, "I need more coffee."

Hetty was hiding her smile at the strength Nell just showed. She was very proud of the young analyst.

Nell watched him leave and returned to her workstation next to Eric. Eric's fist came up and she bumped his fist with hers; neither looking at the other. When Nell turned around to check a different screen, she noticed Hetty had silently left ops.

Thirty minutes later Callen & Tony came through the doors of ops. Callen had never been so thrilled to be back in ops. Tony's incessant babbling about the move Rocky had him wanting to beat the agent with a baseball bat. Callen had previously thought Deeks babbled but Deeks was nothing compared to Tony and movies. "You have to admit, the movie fits. The theme song alone fits. Come on, "The Eye of the Tiger"? It's perfect." Callen looked at him incredulously. "I mean…ok so just the song fits, but still…"

Gibbs entered ops quickly after Tony & Callen. "DiNozzo." Gibbs warned as the door opened and he walked past Tony and farther into ops.

"Shutting up now boss." Tony said as he cringed; waiting for the head slap that didn't come.

Still staring at Tony, silently glad that Gibbs was able to shut the other man up, "Where are they are, Eric?" Callen asked then turned his head to the computer screens.

"I can't find them. We have looked at every inch of footage from every camera that I can access and they are just gone. I was able to triangulate their position using their earwigs to within 4 square miles but it's still too much territory to conduct a search. You need to hear this though."

With that Nell played the recording. A man's voice was heard: _**"Stop!"**_ There was a pause before they heard _**"Who are you?"**_ Another pause, _**"Well, these are very small and very expensive. I think you are federal agents. Yes?"**_ and yet another pause before _**"No matter; whoever you are and whoever is listening, know that you are now hostages and if we do not get out of here you are going to die sooner rather than later."**_ Then there was static and Nell cut off the recording.

Silence permeated the ops center after the recording was stopped. Tony felt a cold chill go down his spine for just a moment before his belief and trust in Ziva's ability to survive jumped to the fore front of his brain and shut down any trepidation about his partner.

"Where are Sam & Deeks?" Callen asked.

"They're still stuck in traffic around that accident. It snarled up everything." Nell replied.

"Sam, Deeks did you get that?"

"We heard it, G. What's your call?" Sam asked.

Callen took a quick look at Gibbs, "We still don't know where they are but the emails actually originated from LA so someone might know who took'em and where they are. Deeks, you got anybody?" Callen asked. Gibbs raised an eyebrow at Callen as if asking _Are you sure this guy can do this?_

"Yea, Max does." Deeks resigned words reached the entire team. "Sam and I will be back after I check a couple of sources." He turned to Sam, "Let's start by going over toward south central LA. There a bar over that way and I think I can find a source there." He didn't say anything else. He just turned to face to look out the passenger side window.

Sam was silent as he used his badge and driving skills to maneuver them out of the traffic jam and in the direction of south central LA. After following Deeks' directions for 25 minutes they arrived outside a pretty scary dive bar. "This is the place?" Sam asked. The bar was in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in LA. From the outside it was obvious that more than drinks were sold inside.

"Yea, Max is known here. If there is any info out there about this, we'll find it here. If there isn't any info yet," he shrugged his shoulder, "by the time we leave here somebody will be looking for it." He turned to Sam, "No matter what happens in there, watch my back. Don't interfere with me, just keep my six clear."

Sam nodded his head in agreement and then they were walking into the bar.


	11. Chapter 11

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

**I posted this chapter and then discovered a MAJOR plot error. I deleted the chapter so I could fix the error. I have discovered it was such a huge error that deleting the section in error was better rather than trying to re-write the section so this chapter could be posted. Thank you! **

Thank you to the wonderful TurquoiseDragonfly ( u/4535068/TurquoiseDragonfly). You have been beyond helpful and you know it.

As well as xnothinghere ( u/2348055/xnothinghere) Thanks for the help.

The plot-bunnies are attacking me with this story. I was hoping to have it wrapped up within the next three chapters but I don't know if I'll make that. I hope you all don't mind if it goes longer than I thought it would.

Please review and let me know your thoughts. Reviews are really helpful to let me know I if I have met your expectation for this story or not. Thanks!

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**

_Last Chapter:_

_Sam was silent as he used his badge and driving skills to maneuver them out of the traffic jam and in the direction of south central LA. After following Deeks' directions for 25 minutes they arrived outside a pretty scary dive bar. "This is the place?" Sam asked. The bar was in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in LA. From the outside it was obvious that more than drinks were sold inside._

"_Yea, Max is known here. If there is any info out there about this, we'll find it here. If there isn't any info yet," he shrugged his shoulder, "by the time we leave here somebody will be looking for it." He turned to Sam, "No matter what happens in there, watch my back. Don't interfere with me, just keep my six clear."_

_Sam nodded his head in agreement and then they were walking into the bar._

**8888888888888888888888888888 88888888**

Deeks had turned off his earwig before getting out of the car. Detective Marty Deeks may have been the one getting out of the car but it was Max Gentry that walked in the bar. Sam entered seconds after Max and immediately did a security sweep. He noted the exits, windows, possible weapons to use and be used against them. The sweep included all the people in the bar; who was carrying weapons, what they were carrying and who wasn't a threat. He immediately dismissed half the people in the room as being a low threat. Of the remaining people there were five that posed a significant threat simply because of what they were carrying. They were spread out throughout the bar and all looked to be organized together.

As Max and Sam walked into the bar, a fight broke out between two of the customers; four of the five men Sam had noticed moved to break up the fight. The two of the men pulled out automatic weapons and two pulled 9mm handguns out and pointed them at the two that were fighting, between the shouting and the guns, the fight stopped and the men were forced out the door at gun point. Sam saw that the fifth man tensed when the fight broke out but didn't move to help. _Bouncers with that much fire power? Not fighters then, dependent on their guns and numbers,_ Sam thought. Because of his training, Sam made these determinations in under a minute as he followed Max's casual walk toward the pool tables at the back of the bar.

Max walked back toward the pool tables but didn't thread his way between them. He stopped at the first table and placed his hands on the edge of the table and leaned some of his weight on the table. The man that was playing pool at the table took his shot before looking up at the intruder prepared to give the intruder a warning. When he saw Max standing there the warning died in his throat and a small skim of sweat appeared on his forehead. "M..M..Max?" The quiet smile Max gave the man sent a chill down the other man's back.

The fake smile fell from his face, "Tommy…Tommy…Tommy. I'm not a happy man right now and I think you know why.

Max's flat voice gave Tommy a more pronounced chill down his back which no one who was watching them missed. Sam picked up on the fact the Max's mere appearance also caused Tommy's hands to shake.

Tommy tried to pull it together and show some backbone, "Where ya been? Rumor has it you just disappeared." Tommy asked with a voice full of fake joy at seeing Max.

"If I wanted you to know where I've been, I would've told you. A shipment of mine got jacked this afternoon. Know anything about it?"

"No. No I don't know about it." Tommy stuttered, all pretenses gone. "Who would be stupid enough to jack something from you?"

Max knew he was lying and just shook his head, "That's too bad. Let's go back here and talk about it." Max invited as he came closer to Tommy. Fear of what Max would do to him if he tried to run kept Tommy rooted to the spot. When Max was next to Tommy, Max grabbed the back of Tommy's neck and applied just enough pressure to ensure Tommy's cooperation before forcing him to the back of the room.

Sam had stopped several paces behind Max while the conversation took place. He just patiently waited for Max to make his move while he continually scanned the room for trouble. Sam saw the bouncers tense and prepare for trouble as they looked at the bartender for instructions. He indicated to his bouncers not to do anything…yet. When the bartender saw that Max was there, he was just as shocked and dismayed as Tommy had been but he knew better than to interfere.

Max walked Tommy to the back of the room as any customers that were playing darts quickly left that area of the bar; several in fact left the bar. Sam followed behind Max but stopped at the first pool table and turned to face the crowd in front of him. This put his back to Max and Tommy while making sure he could see the bartender and all the bouncers that surrounded him. Sam's calm demeanor and the simple confidence that he exuded kept the bartender calm and in turn that kept the bouncers in place for the time being.

Max and Tommy made it to the back of the bar where it opened for darts to be played. When they got there the first thing Sam heard was the forced exhale of someone taking a punch to the solar plexus. "Tommy, do ya know who jacked my shipment?" There was no answer from Tommy because he couldn't breathe, "Oh Tommy, stand up, take a deep breath… There you go." Max helped him stand up by grabbing the back of hair with his left hand and pulling straight up, "now, who jacked my shipment?" He asked again while giving the other man's head a couple of shakes before releasing him.

"Max, I don't…" that was as far as Tommy got before a fist connected with his nose, breaking it and sending him stumbling back into the wall while blood ran freely from his nose.

"Who, Tommy?" Max was calm but he was right in Tommy's face. He had grabbed the cowering man around the throat and held him against the wall, avoiding the gushing blood as much as possible.

"If I tell you what I know, they could kill me."

"What makes you think I won't kill you?" Max asked with a maniacal gleam in his eyes. The menacing tone of voice coming from the normally sedate detective caught Sam off guard. He had only heard it once before and that was against a dirty cop.

Tommy paled when he saw the gleam in Max's eyes. "You wouldn't. Max, we done deals & stuff together." Tommy wheezed out between trying to breathe through his mouth and focusing on Max through the pain of a broken nose.

"And if you want to keep doing stuff, like eating without having to use a straw or…I don't know…breathing without mechanical help, you'll tell me what I want to know."

As the conversation between Tommy and Max started and first punch was thrown, the bouncers started to rise to go stop it. Sam had one ear tuned to what was going on behind him and one ear and both eyes trained on what was going on in front of him. When the bouncers tensed Sam simply looked them in the eyes one at a time while shaking his head 'no'. When the second punch landed and the crack of a broken nose was heard throughout the bar, the bouncers decided that it was time they stepped in. Sam simply raised his right hand with his first finger raised and shook it from side to side while saying "No." He could tell that they were getting antsy but were unsure exactly what they should be doing since guns apparently didn't scare these two men.

At that moment Tommy tried to hit Max hoping Max might have been distracted. Unfortunately for Tommy, Max was still focused on him and not what was happening with Sam. Even though Max was aware of what was happening to Sam, his attention was still on Tommy. The single-minded focus made it easy to avoid the punch. He stepped around the wild swing and dropped Tommy to the floor with another well placed punch to the solar plexus. The sound of Tommy exhaling, crumpling around his middle and landing hard on the floor while gasping for breath had the bouncers deciding it was time to move. They looked to the bartender for instructions.

In a moment of bravado, the bartender signaled the bouncers and they moved toward Sam while showing their weapons hoping that just the threat of all the fire power would stop the two men from causing any more trouble. When one got close enough to Sam he simply punch him in the throat at the same time he grabbed the fully automatic gun from the bouncer's belt and pointed it at the other four men. "DON'T!" Sam ordered the men he was facing. "Max? How we doin' 'cause people are getting itchy up here." Sam's voice was curiously calm with a hint of a smile and the remaining four men didn't quite know what to do.

Never taking his eyes off Tommy he shouted over his shoulder, "Oh I think we're doing great. Tommy here is about to tell me what I wanna know. Aren't you Tommy?"

Tommy weakly raised his head up and nodded before he spilling the information to Max. When Tommy stopped talking he lowered his head to try and breathe better but Max grabbed the back of his head to force eye contact, "If you lied to me or if you dis me on this, I _will_ come back here and you won't like what I do to you. If you try to hide from me, I'll find you and make you suffer more than you can even begin to imagine before I end you." He held Tommy's eyes for a moment to make sure the threat was received before he dropped Tommy's head leaving the gasping, bleeding man on the floor. "Let's go," Max said to Sam without breaking stride. Sam picked up two steps behind Max, weapon down but ready for anything that might happen.

Max stopped at the door to address the bartender with a single raised eyebrow. The bartender froze when Max turned those crazy eyes on him. Knowing what Max was capable of doing the bartender signaled his bouncers to relax. Sam and Max left the bar and stopped for a moment. Sam looked a quick question at Max. Knowing what Sam was asking Max gave the slightest nod of his head before they continued toward the car as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. As Max climbed into the passenger side of the car, Sam opened the trunk and put the automatic weapon he was still holding in the trunk before closing it and climbing into the driver's seat. Without a word, he started the car and drove in the direction of the Mission.

While Deeks & Sam were working on getting the information they needed, Callen, Tony, Nell, Eric & Gibbs were in ops when one of the secondary mics came to life and Ziva's voice was heard: _"I really really hope these mics work down here. What part of you am I laying my head on?"_ There was a slight pause, then _"Can you reach my hair tie from there?"_

"_No, your ponytail is sitting between my wrists. Can you move farther down?" _They were relieved to hear Kensi as well. As Kensi & Ziva's conversation continued the NCIS: LA team was glad the Deeks wasn't there to listen to it. After the second mic was turned on, Kensi was heard to say, _"I'm very glad nobody else was here to witness that little entanglement. At least you didn't have to wrap your legs around one of the guy's heads."_ It sounded to the people in ops as if Kensi and Ziva were laying on each other with their heads between the other's legs. Tony's eyes glazed over and Gibbs face remained impassive but there was surprise in his eyes. Callen tried to stay focused but even he's a guy though he was able to control his reaction better than Tony did. Eric blushed a bright red. Nell just smirked as she looked around her and watched the guys' reactions. Callen saw Nell silently laughing at them. When she caught his eyes he smiled then shook his head to clear the image and get back to work.

"Beale, between the mics and the address things can you find them?" Gibbs asked in a more polite manner. Knowing that Ziva was safe took a slight edge off Gibbs' attitude.

Tony finally came around at the sound of Gibbs' voice. He realized he hadn't moved or even drawn breath since the conversation between the women was heard.

"I'm working on it. I think with a little time, I can." Eric replied without looking at Gibbs and while his fingers continued to fly over the keyboard. "I can tell you they are still in the LA area." Eric felt Gibbs staring which caused him to look up. He continued, "Otherwise we wouldn't get anything from their mics."

The entire room seemed to let out a collectively held breath with the confirmation that Tiger's Eye was closer than they dared hope and that the missing agents were safe for now.


	12. Chapter 12

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Long delayed chapter and I apologize. I blame whoever stole my Muse. So, whoever stole my Muse, please return ASAP! Writing this chapter was harder than it should have been. Please I need my Muse back. I won't post a chapter I'm not happy with and this one was a stinker!

Please review and let me know your thoughts.

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_Last chapter:_

"_Beale, between the mics and the address things can you find them?" Gibbs asked in a more polite manner. Knowing that Ziva was safe took a slight edge off Gibbs' attitude. _

_Tony finally came around at the sound of Gibbs' voice. He realized he hadn't moved or even drawn breath since the conversation between the women was heard._

"_I'm working on it. I think with a little time, I can." Eric replied without looking at Gibbs and while his fingers continued to fly over the keyboard. "I can tell you they are still in the LA area." Eric felt Gibbs staring which caused him to look up. He continued, "Otherwise we wouldn't get anything from their mics."_

_The entire room seemed to let out a collectively held breath with the confirmation that Tiger's Eye was closer than they dared hope and that the missing agents were safe for now._

New Chapter:

Ten silent minutes into their drive back to the mission Sam heard three deep breaths and exhales from his current partner. Deeks rolled his head from side to side releasing the muscles and cracking his neck. "You back Shaggy?" Sam asked him.

Deeks shrugged a shoulder, "as much as I can be right now." Sam understood this. Every agent at OSP had aliases that were hard to come back from.

Sam let it go for now, "What did you learn?"

"The group is Syrian and they've been annoying Compton mostly. Small time stuff though; hand guns, drugs, extortion of local immigrants. Nothing on this scale. It doesn't make sense."

"Unless they've got a new leader or two in the last few months? Or getting orders from overseas or someplace else." Sam thought out loud.

Deeks & Sam both reached up and turned on their earwigs. "Yours was off too?" Deeks asked when he recognized the motion. "What if we had needed help?"

"I was there Shaggy. What more did you need?" Sam joked to him trying to lighten the mood of the younger detective. Deeks shook his head at Sam's joke.

"If you two are done with your bonding and if you aren't going to kiss, how about letting us know what you learned?" Callen asked.

"Careful G." Sam growled at his long-time friend.

Deeks tried to smirk at the comment but only managed a slight lip curl before answering, "The guys who took'em are somewhere in Compton. But it doesn't make sense. Up 'til now they're small time. Sold some hand guns, drugs, extortion of locals but nothing to indicate they could handle something of this size." Deeks reiterated. "So where're they getting their orders?"

"According to McGee the e-mails didn't come from Columbia; they were generated here in LA." Eric confirmed.

"So how does the group in Compton fit with the email addresses and locations we got from McGee?" Sam asked.

When no one answered immediately Sam added another question, "Has there been any word on Kensi & Ziva?"

Callen answered his teammate, "Yeah, they're fine for now. The secondary mics are working. They're trying to find a way out." He cleared his throat, "apparently there was some issue with getting the mics turned on."

Tony raised his eyebrows at Callen for his use of that particular phrase.

"Getting the mics 'activated'," Callen rolled his eyes at Tony but continued talking, "was how Eric was able to determine they were still in the LA area. Add Deeks' information about their connection to Compton and Eric thinks we should have a location soon." He looked at Eric for confirmation and Eric gave him a quick thumbs up but never took his eyes off what he was doing.

"Where are you?" This was growled from Gibbs.

"We'll be there in about 5." Sam said.

More than 5 minutes but less than 10 minutes later Sam & Deeks were standing in ops with the remainder of their team.

"How did it go?" Callen asked Sam.

Deeks felt Sam's eyes move to him so he lowered his eyes to look at his shoes. "Impressively" was Sam's only answer. All the eyes in ops turned to gaze at Deeks. Callen didn't need Sam to explain his answer. Neither did Gibbs or anyone else in ops. In the way he said that one word, it showed that Sam was indeed impressed with Deeks.

Deeks shook off the implied compliment and groped for something to bring the attention off of him. For once he was the one who brought everyone's attention back to the task at hand; finding their missing agents and the stolen SAMs. "So we have ears on Kensi and Ziva?"

Callen exhaled and went with Deeks question. "Yea, their mics were activated about 15 minutes ago."

When Kensi's voice was heard over the speakers in ops, the people in the room stopped talking and listened. Within moments of the conversation starting, there wasn't a single sound or movement in ops.

**888888888888888888**

Sitting in the small dark room, Ziva and Kensi were trying to find a way out of their confinement. "Well, first we need to get out of these cuffs. They looked cheap but they seem quite strong. Wonder where they got these things, Bondageforfun& ? At least they could have gotten the fuzzy kind." Kensi knew what she was doing, she was trying to relieve a little of her stress by channeling something her normal partner would say, but it didn't quite work when Ziva didn't make any reaction. "Don't suppose you've got a lock pick on you?" Kensi asked not really expecting an answer in the affirmative.

"No, but I have rule #9."

"Rule 9?" Kensi asked.

"Gibbs has lots of rules. Rule 9 is 'never go anywhere without a knife'. I have a hidden knife."

Kensi raised an eyebrow, "how big?"

"Small, 3" blade and a 1.5" hilt. It might be small enough to pick the lock."

"Ok, where is it?"

"It is in my bra." Ziva answered her with a resigned sigh.

"Great. I wish we had thought to get the knife out before turning on our mics. I don't suppose you can reach it in anyway?" Kensi replied.

"No." was her simple answer.

"Ok, from where it is, I can't believe this and I really hope Deeks isn't listening, is it better for me to use my hands or my teeth to get it out?"

Ziva chuckled, "Or Tony. I do not even want to think about what he would say. It is best if you use your hands. It is straight down the center of my chest. The sheath is attached to my bra. I think if you were to reach between my breasts you will be able to pull it out."

"We have to try this again then. I'm going to stand up. Are you sitting down?" Kensi asked.

"Yes. My back is to a wall and I am going to extend my legs so you can find me," which she did.

Kensi stood up and felt around with her foot until she found Ziva. "Ok, it feels like I'm touching your leg. Which leg and where?"

"It is my right leg between my knee and ankle."

"I'm touching you with my left foot. I need to step over you. God I hope I don't step on you."

"Well, step big then" Ziva replied.

Kensi snorted in mock amusement as she stepped over the sitting woman. When she was positioned she reached back and felt around with her hands until she made contact with Ziva's face. "Why didn't we think to do this when we needed to turn the mics on?" Not waiting for an answer she continued, "This is going to get weird again. I'm going to have to squat down so I can reach the knife."

Kensi started to squat down, keeping her hands on Ziva; sliding her hands down Ziva's face, "I now understand how a blind person can tell what someone looks like. Just don't open your mouth and or sneeze." She continued until her right hand found Ziva's right breast then moved her hand down and a little to the left until she could find the hilt. She gave it a little tug but the knife didn't move. She gave it another tug that was just a little bit stronger.

"Ok, stop. Nothing is moving." Ziva let her know.

"SHIT! I can barely feel my fingers." Kensi said as she tried not to have to sit on the other woman.

"Well, I can feel what your fingers are doing just fine." Ziva said with sarcasm, "You are going to have to try pushing it up from underneath."

"Hang on, I have to stand up for a bit and move my fingers around, see if I can't get some feeling back in them. Damn they bound me tight." She stood up as she was saying this and so she wouldn't lose where Ziva was sitting, she walked back and forth parallel to her.

"I understand. My hands are numb as well." Ziva commiserated with her.

It took about 5 minutes before Kensi was ready to try again. "I'm going to have sit in your lap in order to get low enough to push it up from underneath."

Kensi sat down on Ziva's lap and the only sound was Ziva's grunt of having the taller woman's weight dropped on her legs. Kensi stretched her arms back as far as they would go and found Ziva's jean's button. Before continuing her search for the knife, she gathered her legs under her and used her legs to push herself up while keeping her hands on Ziva until she felt the bottom of the knife. She started to push against the knife, hoping the sheath was not of the stiff leather variety. She was please when she felt the knife start to move. "Yes, I can feel it moving. Can you reach it with your teeth yet?"

"What?" Ziva queried.

"I can't push it all the way out. I can only push it so far, you need to grab it with your teeth, and then I'll stand up and pull it the rest of the way out."

"Oh, alright." Ziva tried to lower her head only to have it come into contact with Kensi's butt. "Sorry." And she tucked her head closer to herself and tried to reach with her lips.

"Hey, after all we have been through, a little face to butt is the least of our worries."

"A little higher and I think I can get it." Kensi stood a little more, then a little more and was about to stand up a little more when she heard a muffled "Got it" from Ziva.

**8888888888888888888888888888**

Back in the operations center of the Mission, Nell had started to wonder if anyone other than her was still breathing. She was standing next to Eric and gave him a shove when his computer beeped but he didn't move. "Eric, you've got something." Nell hissed at him.

"Right. Guys I have a general location for them." This brought all eyes back to him. "It's somewhere within this two mile radius centering around Hwy 710 & 91. But I'm getting a lot of interference. Before they lost their comms they did say where put in an underground room which could account for it."

"What about the IP addresses?" Deeks asked.

"No good, they were an internet café on the other side of town, East LA to be exact." Eric responded. "I've tried to access the local traffic cams & ATMs but there are just too many people going by the ATM cameras and blocking the view, I'm hoping the traffic cams will be more helpful, but…" he stopped and glanced at Gibbs before continuing, "I've been a little busy to give them a good going over. And now that we have a more concentrated direction to search, I've started a kaleidoscope search for the truck in Compton."

Nell added her voice to the explanation. "I've started to go through the traffic cam footage around the café for the hour before and after each of the emails was sent. I'm running the faces against the footage we got today to see if there is a match for anybody going to the café. Unfortunately, there are two ways into the café and only traffic cams near the front entrance."

"Good work." Callen said to the pair, "Eric, send us a description & license of the truck and keep us posted on the search. We are headed to Compton to look around." He turned to face the other team members in the room. "Gibbs, why don't you come with me & Tony? We'll look around north of 91. Sam, you and Deeks go in the Lexus and look south of 91. Maybe we'll get lucky." With that they all left.

After the 5 men left ops, Eric quietly said a 'thank you' to Callen for getting Gibbs out of the building.


	13. Chapter 13

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Please review and let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, etc. etc. etc. Please Please Please!

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Kensi carefully felt around Ziva's face until she found the small knife sticking out of her partner's mouth and gently took the blade in her hand. "Wow! That is small. It should be small enough to pick the locks. You want to do the honors or should I?"

"Are you going to try and pick your cuffs or mine?" Ziva asked.

"Yours. I've just tried mine and I can't get a good angle. In fact, I just cut myself. Great."

"Well, do not cut me. With the height difference we are going to have to be seated to give this an effort." As they arranged themselves on the floor, back to back, Ziva spoke again, "I have changed my mind. I will pick your cuffs first."

"Don't trust me to not cut you?" Kensi shot back.

"I know I can pick a lock without looking and with a similar knife. Have you ever tried it?"

"Fine, take it. But if you cut me…" Kensi let the sentence trail off because she wasn't sure what she could threaten the other woman with. _Damn, _thought Kensi, _with Deeks the threats work, with Ziva, not so much._

Ziva was quietly smirking knowing the dilemma Kensi just found herself in. "I will do my best not to cut you, now do not move." Ziva started to work on the small lock on Kensi's handcuffs.

It was a few minutes later when Kensi felt the cuff loosen around her wrist. "You got it." Kensi pulled her arms around to her front and massaged her wrist to get the circulation back into her hand.

She heard Ziva sigh as she dropped the knife to the floor. "Good, my hands are numb again."

"Thanks." She told Ziva as she searched via feel for the knife Ziva had dropped. When she found it, she started to work on Ziva's cuffs even though she still had a cuff around one wrist. Kensi and Ziva felt the cuff give way at the same time. "There you go." Ziva was massaging her own wrist in an effort to regain some circulation while Kensi started to work on her second cuff. Kensi made quick work of her other cuff and handed the knife back to Ziva being careful not to cut her.

Ziva picked her last cuff and replaced the knife in its sheath. "Now to get out of here. Stay where you are, I am going to find the door." Kensi remained where she was as Ziva slowly walked around the room using her hands to search for the door. "Found it."

"Lock?"

"Yes, just one." Ziva withdrew her knife and started to work on the lock.

When that was all Ziva said, "Are you working on it?" Kensi asked since she couldn't see anything.

Ziva didn't bother answering her as she opened the door a little, letting in just a little light until their eyes adjusted to the brightness. Slowly Ziva opened the door letting in more light and hoping that there was no one on the other side to see them. She looked at Kensi and quietly asked if she was ready to fight or sneak their way out. Kensi nodded her head that she was ready for either situation and they both headed out the door.

**8888888888888888888888888888888**

Eric and Nell were furiously working away on their computers trying to find the truck or the agents or both. "Any new information, Mr. Beale?" Hetty asked.

"Well, I'm running a kaleidoscope search for the truck while trying to find Kensi & Ziva as Nell checks the traffic cam footage around the café where the emails were sent." Eric answered her while never stopping his work. "It's going a little better now that Agent Gibbs is not breathing down my neck." He felt Hetty's eyes on him and he noticed that Nell had stopped working. He looked up and saw both people staring at him, "did I just say that out loud?" Nell nodded her head and Eric continued, "Sorry. I thought that was only in my head."

"Mr. Beale, keep up the good work," was Hetty's only response to his outburst while Nell turned back to her own computer because it started to beep.

"I got one!" Nell practically jumped in her seat. She put the image on the big screen, "It's Adad Oommen. I found him leaving the café about 5 minutes after the last email was sent to Tiger's Eye."

"So we have confirmation that the emails were sent by the same people who have our agents. No Columbian connection at all." Hetty said as she started to leave ops, "Let the rest of the team know."

"You got it," Eric replied as he turned back to his own screen while turning on his comms.

**8888888888888888888888888888888888**

"Are you sure Eric? No Columbian connection at all?" Callen asked.

"Nell spotted one of the Syrians leaving the café just after the last email to Tiger's Eye was sent." Eric answered.

"That doesn't make sense; they planned this whole thing to steal the weapons?" Tony questioned.

"Apparently, but the question still is 'Where are they now?' Beale?" Gibbs growled.

"If anyone can find them it's Eric and Nell. We just have to give them a little more time." Callen tried to smooth Gibbs over. "Sam? Where are you?"

"We're on East Harcourt St. about to turn north on White. A lot of warehouses but haven't seen the truck yet. You?"

"North Atlantic near East 72nd; no sign of…"

He was cut off by Eric's voice over the comms. "I got a traffic cam hit on the truck; White Ave & East 65th. It was headed east on East 65th about two hours ago. Fast forwarding through the rest of the footage and I don't see it leaving. It's still there guys, East 65th is a dead end."

"Good job Eric. Sam, how far away are you?" Callen asked.

"Six blocks, about 5 minutes." Sam let him know.

"We will be there in about 15 minutes. Wait for us."

"Copy that."

**88888888888888888888888888888888**

Ziva and Kensi slowly crept their way up the stairs being quiet and keeping out of sight. As they neared the top of the stairs, they peeked over the wall so they were eye level with the floor above them. The truck was empty and all the boxes were opened revealing 3 not 12 SAMs. They spotted several men, heavily armed standing around the perimeter of the building with 3 standing near the empty boxes and arguing amongst themselves.

Kensi touched Ziva's arm and nodded her head back to the bottom of the stairs. Ziva followed her back to their small room, leaving the door slight ajar so they could see each other and also hear if anyone was coming to get them.

"Eric, I really hope you can hear me. I counted a dozen heavily armed men including the three that were arguing. They've opened the boxes and are not happy." Kensi let Eric know. "We're working on a way to get out of the building."

Up in ops Eric was informing the rest of the team of Tiger's Eye situation when he heard Ziva, "Someone is coming!" as she shut the door.

They positioned themselves on either side of the door, Kensi on the side with the door handle and Ziva on the other side and then they waited a few seconds for the door to open. As the door opened the small room was flooded with light and the point of the gun slowly entered the room. It took Kensi only a second to grab the gun and pull the man inside using the momentum of the jerk to slam the heel of her hand into the man's nose, breaking it and knocking him out.

They quickly stripped him of his weapon and ammo having a quick silent argument over who got the gun which Kensi won when Ziva spotted a large knife strapped to the man belt. She quickly took the knife and let Kensi take the lead out of the room and up the stairs. As they got to the top of the stairs and checked over the wall again, they saw that most of the men were looking toward the truck and the men arguing near it.

Ziva snuck around Kensi and crept up behind the closest man. She debated with herself for a moment about either cutting the man throat or breaking his neck. She made her decision and very quietly took a page out of Gibbs' playbook by applying 66 pounds of pressure while she snapped the man's neck before he could move. She left the knife and grabbed the automatic weapon from his lifeless hands.

They continued around the edge of the building; ducking from cover to cover until they were spotted and fired upon. They dove for the nearest cover. "You ok?" Kensi asked Ziva.

"Yes, but I hate being shot at, it really tocks me off!"

"Tocks?"

"Yes, tocks, you know like what a clock does." At Kensi's blank look, Ziva rolled her eyes and tried to quickly explain. "It makes me angry."

"A clock makes you angry?"

"No, it's what it does."

"Exactly what does what do?" Kensi asked completely confused.

"The noise a clock makes. Isn't that an idiom for 'makes me angry'?

"Tocks…Do you mean, ticks? Something ticks you off?"

"Yes! Ticks! Ticks me off."

Kensi laughed "Copy that." The sound of her laughter brought more bullets flying their way causing both women to cringe. "Ideas?"

"Shoot and run?" Ziva asked.

Kensi looked at her partner to see if she was joking but didn't find any humor. "Are you serious?"

"Yes unless _you_ have an idea?"

Kensi shook head, "On three, I'll cover and you run." At Ziva's nod, "One, two, three" Kensi stood up and started to fire from their 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, Ziva took off for the next cover, firing her weapon from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock. Kensi quickly followed her to the next cover. "Well that worked. I got one. You?"

"The two at the front of the truck; that leaves 7," Ziva answered her. "Your hand is bleeding," Ziva pointed to the back of Kensi's left hand.

"Yea, that's the cut from your knife." Kensi dismissed the wound, "ready to do this again?" Ziva nodded and just as they were about to take off, they heard the sound of a vehicle rushing into the building, squealing to a stop near the center of the building. Two men jumped out and started yelling "FEDERAL AGENTS! FREEZE!" and then more gun fire erupted.

Sam dropped to his knee and took cover behind the car door, facing the front of the car. Deeks dropped to his knee, opened the back door for cover and faced the back of the car. Both men were firing their weapons as Tiger's Eye stood up from their cover and also started firing.

Very quickly three of the seven remaining Syrians were on the ground, dead or bleeding as another vehicle squealed to a stop inside the building and three more men jumped out of the new arrival, yelling "Federal Agents!", and proceeded to join the firefight.

Within moments the fight was over. When the smoke cleared, six Syrians were dead, two were bleeding out and the remaining three had fairly minor wounds. Those three had given up when they realized they didn't have a chance to get out alive.

Deeks & Gibbs yelled at the same time, "KENSI?! ZIVA?!"

"We're good." Kensi said back. "Aww, Ziva and I were just about to rescue ourselves and you guys had to interfere." Kensi added with a big smile on her face. Everyone, the agents in the warehouse and the people working in ops, all let out a sigh of relief that everyone came out unharmed.

Before Tony or Deeks was able to come up with something witty to say, Hetty asked "Are the SAMs there, Mr. Callen?"

"Yes, all three are here." He replied.

"I'm going to inform the Director that our agents and the SAMs have been recovered."

"Hetty, it's 2:45am."

"Yes, Mr. Beale but it's 5:45am in DC. I'm sure the Director is awake." With a "Good work everybody" she left ops.

"Eric, we need ambulances. We have two with critical wounds and three with minor." Callen said.

"Already on their way, Callen" Eric replied. "Are any of the wounded…" Eric was cut off mid-sentence when he heard a gun fire.

Everyone in the warehouse turned to Deeks, weapons raised and prepared to fire. When they saw Deeks, lower his weapon from pointing at Gibbs they saw that Deeks had fired his weapon just past Gibbs' head and into the Syrian that was about to attack Gibbs with a large knife.

Nobody said anything as Gibbs bent down and examined the latest casualty of the operation. "His nose has been broken. Your work Ziva?" Gibbs asked as he stood up and looked at Deeks. He nodded his thanks to the detective who acknowledged the thanks with a nod of his own head.

"Not this time." Ziva answered as she wandered around the downed men, "Who are they?" Ziva wanted to know.

"Good question." Callen answered her as the ambulances and LAPD arrived on scene.


	14. Chapter 14

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

I DID NOT and DO NOT plan on this being a political statement of any kind. It is just a story. Please take it that way. Slow chapter but it gets the story where I need/want it to go.

Please review and let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, etc. etc. etc. Please Please Please! As I said before, reviews are a writer's coffee: they help keep us going.

**8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888**

Five hours later found everyone back at the boatshed. Two of the Syrians were in separate interrogation rooms and the third wounded man was still in the hospital due to his wounds. He was under heavy guard.

Gibbs, Callen, Sam, Kensi, Ziva and Deeks all stood around the table that was littered with food wrappers and drinks. They were watching the monitors and discussing the events of the night.

"Eric, do you have IDs and backgrounds on these guys yet?" Callen asked.

"Yea, these two men have been here for more than 10 years. Brothers: Pothan & Kurien Mathulla. They don't have criminal records. They own a small store in Compton. I don't find anything suspicious in their activities. Although, they both served in the Syrian military before immigrating to the States."

Everyone in the boatshed was quietly thinking about what this might mean.

Finally it was Gibbs that spoke up, "Beale, anything else? Like information on the other men?"

"Only that the rest of the men have similar back grounds to the Mathulla brothers. All served in the Syrian military before coming to the States between 2 to 10 years ago."

"They're buying military weapons for the Syrian government?" Tony voiced.

"Shouldn't the Syrian government be able to buy their own weapons? I mean, black market weapons? For a _government_? That doesn't make any sense at all." Deeks added shaking his head in disbelief.

"Let's go find out what's going on." Callen said. "Gibbs? A or B?" Gibbs smirked and headed toward the upper level interrogation room. "B it is," Callen said as he looked at Sam and they headed into the other interrogation room. The remaining 4 people found spots around the table so they could see the monitors and watch the questioning going on in each room.

Gibbs walked into the room containing Pothan and before Gibbs could say or do anything, Pothan spoke one word, "Lawyer."

Gibbs ignored him and sat down at the table. "You were buying military weapons and had hostages and you are a foreign national on US soil. Heard of the Patriot Act? You are classified as a terrorist operating on US soil which means you don't get a lawyer." Pothan's face registered shock.

A similar conversation was taking place in the other room. "You're getting a one way ticket to Gitmo and a lot of conversations with their interrogators. Congratulations." Callen told Kurien with a smile.

"Why buy weapons for the Syrian government? Twelve SAMs isn't going to make a difference for the government." Sam asked.

At Sam's question Kurien's head snapped around to look at him. "We don't work for the Syrian Government."

"You all have military backgrounds." Sam continued, "seems logical to me: Syrian Intelligence places highly trained operatives in the US. We call it a sleeper cell. Then when they need information about the rebels, you provide that information to them."

Callen picked it up, "information is easier to get in the US than in Syria right now, so if they are looking for the rebels what better way to gain information?"

"We do not work for the government. We would never work for them again." Kurien stressed.

Gibbs was talking to his own suspect getting similar information, "We hate the government. They will do whatever they want to do to keep power. Kill whoever gets in their way, even former military and their families. Even children." He said angrily and sadly at the same time.

Nell had been listening and checking on the answers. When she had some information, she asked everyone back into the main area of the boatshed. When everyone was back together Nell began. "I was checking their backgrounds using some of the other agencies and their databases," when Eric raised his eyebrows at her, "Don't ask," she mumbled to him. She continued louder, "According to Immigration and cross referencing with…those other databases the 10 members of the Mathulla family were arrested and jailed by the government. According to the records I've found they all died in prison even the children."

Silence prevailed throughout the room until "What were they arrested for?" Tony asked.

"I haven't found that out yet, but I can tell you, it wasn't just their family; it looks like it was just about everyone in their village. Most of which died in prison."

There was another pregnant pause as everyone digested this new information. "Do they really need a reason to arrest someone in Syria?" Deeks asked Tony.

"No, they don't. They take anyone they want. Nell? Keep digging, see if you can find out any more information of these two." Sam replied.

"Yea, I'm working on that." Nell left the screen to continue her work.

"So why were these two buying weapons?" Kensi asked the group.

"And what were they going to do with them." Ziva said.

"Let's find out." Gibbs said as he walked back upstairs.

Callen and Sam left to continue their talk to Kurien. "Tell us about Adad Oommen and Sargon Ninan." Callen asked before he sat down. Kurien didn't say thing. "Don't have anything else to say?" When the man was still silent, "Well, enjoy your trip to Cuba."

Gibbs was having better luck with Pothan. "Why did you need the weapons?"

"Survival. We need them to survive."

"Survive what?" Gibbs glanced over the visible parts of the other man. "You look just fine to me." He casually commented.

"We are, but our families are not. The government is rounding up anyone they think might be working with the rebels and executing them. We are fighting for our lives. The horrors the government has inflicted on the people is beyond imagination."

"So?" Gibbs' casual attitude was getting to the other man.

"So?! Not your problem correct? Not your problem, not your government's problem, not the world's problem. Nobody's problem but people are dying and nobody does anything to help. We need help."

"You left, what help was that?"

"We left to find a better life so we could bring our family hope."

"How'd that work out for you?" Gibbs was still casual in his questions and attitude driving the other man to agitation.

"You do not understand! We need those weapons for the rebels. Those 12 missiles would help the rebels a lot. Your government won't help us, we have to help ourselves. Nobody in this country was going to get hurt."

"Except that you held two undercover agents hostage with the threat to kill them. Sounds like someone was going to get hurt."

"That was not the plan."

"What was the plan?" The man was silent so Gibbs added, "It really can only help you because right now you are under arrest for arms dealing, kidnapping & espionage. You are going away for a long time, probably to Cuba where no one will ever hear from you again."

Pothan was silent but Gibbs could tell he was getting to him so he continued, "or you'll get deported back to Syria."

Pothan's eyes widened, so Gibbs remained silent. Several minutes passed before Pothan started to get antsy.

Finally he just started talking. "We wanted to help our people. We've been collecting money from the local community here and sending it to people in Syria to help the rebels but it wasn't enough. They needed weapons. We were contacted by some of the rebels to try and find some. But we didn't know how to go about it. We received information about two men that could help us."

"Adad Oommen and Sargon Ninan?" Gibbs asked.

Pothan nodded his head. "We contacted them and they said they could get us what we needed. We agreed upon a price and they handled the details. We didn't know that they were going to kill people to get the weapons or kidnap them. No one was supposed to get hurt." He stated again.

"Well that didn't work out for you, did it? Lot of people are dead now."

"A lot of people?" He asked getting agitated again. "There are a lot more people dead than the few that died here. Am I happy about the deaths here? No, but the Syrian government has killed thousands and no one has helped; so we do what we can to help our families. You're government goes into Kuwait, Iraq & Afghanistan because those governments, run by dictators, were killing the people. Yet you ignore Syria. How can your government talk about human rights but ignore us?"

"And now, you are as bad as your government. You killed innocents and now you get to go to jail."

"We didn't kill anyone. Nobody was supposed to get hurt! We argued about it. Adad & Sargon thought we should use the women to get ourselves and the weapons out and then kill them so they couldn't identify us. We argued that it was not the plan. But when there were only 3 missiles Sargon was very angry. He wanted to kill them right away. Adad convinced him to not kill them before we escaped then kill them. We argue to not kill them; that we might be able to use them to get more weapons."

Callen and Sam had left their suspect and were gathered with the other team members watching Gibbs on the monitor. "We can use this to break Kurien." Sam said and they headed back in.

"So Adad & Sargon argued about when to kill the hostages." Callen said as he sat down. "What side were you on? Kill them because there weren't as many missiles as you thought or kill them after you all escaped with the missiles?"

When Callen started talking Kurien knew his brother has talked to the agents. "Neither. No one was supposed to get hurt. We argued that they could help us get more weapons; exchange them for the additional weapons."

"Why steal the weapons?" Sam wanted to know.

"We had sent most of our money to the rebels. What little we had left was paid to Adad & Sargon. We did not have anything left to purchase weapons apart from a few handguns." His head was down and he sounded defeated and angry. "You do not understand," he slapped his hand down on the table and looked up at the two agents, "our people are dying and no one else will help."

"And now, who's going to help your family and your people?" Sam asked.

Out in the main room the four other teammates were unsure of what to say or do. What could they say? The statement that the US government hadn't intervened was accurate. Whether they agreed that the US should intervene or not was not their job. Their job was to find the dealers, the weapons and to stop the weapons from getting into the hands of terrorist or enemies of the United States. Is that what they had done this time?


	15. Chapter 15

Joint Operations

NCIS: LA/NCIS Crossover

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! It is always like Christmas when I see there is a new review. I appreciate every single review that has been submitted. Thank You! For the reviewer called "guest" who thought NCIS wasn't getting their fair share of attention, please remember, patience is a good thing.

I DID NOT and DO NOT plan on this being a political statement of any kind. It is just a story. Please take it that way.

Please review and let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, etc. etc. etc. Please Please Please! As I said before, reviews are a writer's coffee: they help keep us going.

_**Last C**____**hapter:**_

_Out in the main room the four other teammates were unsure of what to say or do. What could they say? The statement that the US government hadn't intervened was accurate. Whether they agreed that the US should intervene or not was not their job. Their job was to find the dealers, the weapons and to stop the weapons from getting into the hands of terrorist or enemies of the United States. Is that what they had done this time?_

**New Chapter:**

As the rest of team sat wondering what was going on Gibbs, Callen & Sam immerged from the interrogation rooms and joined them around the table.

"So what do we do with them now?" Deeks asked the group in general.

"Exactly what we said we were going to do with them. They still broke the law." Sam answered.

Tony had been watching Gibbs and the look on Gibbs' face made Tony question, "What do you think, Boss?"

"Something isn't right." Was all Gibbs said as he continued to watch the monitor.

"Your gut telling you something?"

"Yea, we're being played. Do we have ballistics back yet?" When no one answered him, he turned his eyes to the new team and emphasized, "DO WE HAVE BALLISTICS BACK YET?"

Tony and Ziva jumped to check their phones to see if any information had been sent through; Kensi and Deeks shared a look of surprise to be spoken to in such a manner. It did not however seem to affect Sam in any way. Callen just punched the ops phone number into the phone on table. "What can I do for you Callen?" Eric answered as he appeared on the screen.

"Ballistics?"

"We sent ballistics and forensics to Abby. She said she would call when she…"

He was cut off when Abby's happy face showed up on the screen. "Gibbs Gibbs Gibbs, you are never going to believe this." Tony and Ziva both smiled into their hands recognizing an over-caffeinated Abby when they saw one. Abby smiled a hello at everyone on her screen until she spotted Ziva and changed topics, "Ziva! I'm really glad you're alright! And you to Kensi, I'm really glad you're ok. I was really worried." Then she changed the subject again, "Oh, sorry for cutting you off Eric but this is really important."

Gibbs exhaled loudly to bring Abby's attention back to him, "What's so important, Abs?"

"Gibbs, I started to run DNA on everyone at the warehouse and I discovered something that's hinky. Well, not so much hinky as just plain wrong."

Eric interrupted her this time, "You got DNA back already?! WOW! It takes us at least 48 hours."

"Oh, it helps when I'm the one running the DNA and not having to wait for an outside lab. But I haven't got the DNA results back yet."

"Abby?" This from Gibbs.

"Gibbs, the two you have in custody can't be brothers. One has a blood type of O negative and the other is AB positive. There is no way they are blood related!"

"Abby are you positive?" Eric asked. Abby gave him a hurt yet disbelieving look. "I'm sorry Abby but Nell and I have been drilling down on their histories, we have gone back almost 8 years and it's all there: family, military records, photos, everything."

"Eric!" Abby scolded in her kindest way, "blood doesn't lie."

"Abby do you have access to databases that might contain their DNA to match it to? Something from before they came to the States?" Callen asked.

"No. Ziva, would Mossad have access to Syrian DNA databases?"

"I doubt it, but I can ask. I do not think Syria is currently that concerned with documenting the DNA of anyone." Everyone shrugged or nodded in agreement.

"Abs, call Fornell and get access to every database for every kind of identification available. If he gives you trouble call me or the Director. Run them through facial rec and every other way to identify them. I wanna know who they are." Abby nodded to Gibbs, waved goodbye to everyone then cut her feed. "Beale, you and Jones keep doing what you're doing. I wanna know everything."

"You got it." Eric's face cleared off the screen leaving just the two men sitting in interrogation showing on the flat screen and a lot of tension in the room.

"Boss?"

"I need coffee." Gibbs stated to no one in particular while still looking at the flat screen.

"There's some right behind you," Deeks supplied helpfully.

Gibbs looked him in the eye before standing up, "that's not coffee" and walked toward the door stating, "I'm getting coffee."

Deeks looked a little surprised and got up to go to the coffee maker. He pulled the coffee pot off the warmer and sniffed the coffee inside, shrugging a shoulder he poured himself a cupful and took a careful sip. "Tastes like coffee to me," and proceeded to take a larger sip. This caused everybody to chuckle breaking the tension in the room which was Deeks' purpose for making the comment.

Tony shook his head and asked "So what's next is that we need information. You guys got anybody we can talk to about these two?"

It was Deeks who answered him, "I can see if Tommy has any additional information but I think if he did, he would have contacted Max by now." Sam caught Deeks eyes and smirked at him while nodding his head in agreement.

"Anybody we can check with at LAPD?" Kensi asked him.

Deeks was silent for a few moments, "I could check with the gang unit. See if they have heard anything. These guys seem to operate like a gang. Maybe somebody's filed a complaint." He put his coffee on the table and pulled his phone out of his back pocket to start dial the LAPD.

While Deeks was on the phone with the LAPD, Kensi's phone started to ring. She checked the caller ID to see it was Hetty. "Yes, Hetty?"

"Ms. Blye, since things are currently at a standstill, you and Ms. David need to clean out the safe house and return your wardrobe."

"On our way, Hetty." She clicked off the call and returned the phone to her pocket, "Hetty wants me and Ziva to clean out the safe house and return our wardrobes."

Callen nodded his head in understanding. "Might as well. We seem not to be going anywhere right now."

Ziva had a brief silent conversation with Tony before joining Kensi as she left the boatshed. Callen, Sam & Tony were left sitting there, waiting and thinking.

"Sam, do you have any contacts we can hit up?" Callen asked.

"No, not in or from Syria."

"Ok, so LAPD was slightly helpful." Deeks let them know as he hung up his phone. "They do have a file on a Syrian gang working out of Compton. I don't know if it's these guys or not, but they are going to send the file over to Eric. Unfortunately, they can only tell us what they've been doing here; not who they were before they got here." He sat down on the table and pulled a chair up to rest his feet on.

Several minutes later with no helpful information or ideas coming forth, Eric appeared on the screen. "I got the file from LAPD. They don't have much. There are some names and addresses of people who complained about this group but no pictures of anybody, so I have nothing to compare with the guys we have here. Oh, and Abby's running ballistics now. She said she might have something in a couple of hours."

"Ok, thanks Eric. Keep checking on the backgrounds of these two, that's all we've got right now." Eric nodded his head and cut his feed.

"At least it gives us a place to start with questions." Tony supplied.

"Tony, you and Deeks head over to Compton and talk to the people who filed complaints. See if there's any connection to these two here." Gibbs had quietly entered and when he spoke everyone gave a slight startle of surprise.

Tony nodded his head and started toward the door. "Jeez! He's like Hetty." Deeks quietly mumbled to himself as he joined Tony leaving the boatshed. Tony heard him and just smirked with understanding.

"Where are Ziva and Kensi?" Gibbs asked.

"Hetty wanted them to clean out the safe house." Callen let him know.

**88888888888888888888888888888**

Tony and Deeks headed out to Compton. They were both silent which was unusual for either man.

"So how long…" Tony said just as Deeks started with "How do you know…" Both men fell silent.

Trying to be polite Deeks indicated with his hand that Tony should go first. Tony being Tony didn't need to be asked twice, "How long have you been with NCIS?"

"I'm not. I'm working with NCIS but I'm actually LAPD. I've been the liaison between them for 3 years." Deeks answered.

"That's gotta be tough."

"The toughest parts are the paperwork and when I get called back to LAPD for undercover ops." He paused while he checked the traffic before turning right. "I can handle the undercover work except I usually don't have much back up from LAPD. Working with NCIS, I kinda got used to having someone have my back, LAPD's not so good at that. And the double paperwork sucks. LAPD still has to have an accounting of all my time. You? How long you been NCIS?"

"A long long time."

"What's the worst part?" Deeks wanted to know.

"When I had to do an 'Agent Afloat' stint."

"What's Agent Afloat?"

"You are on a ship, in my case a carrier, which meant I was the only cop in a tiny floating town of 5,000 people."

"What trouble could they possibly get into? What was there for you to do?" Deeks was really curious.

"Oh, let's see. First there was the drug use, the fights, the petty theft and then there was the guy that tried to steal $500,000 worth of anti-anthrax meds to sell on the black market after he killed 3 people."

"Seriously?" Deeks' eyebrows had moved up to his hairline in surprise.

"Yea. That was fun. But it did get me off the ship and back on Gibbs' team."

"How did you meet Gibbs?"

"I arrested him."

"That took balls. That would be like arresting Hetty."

"I was with Baltimore PD at the time and he messed with an op. I thought he was a scumbag dealer." He shrugged, "By the time the op ended, Gibbs had me standing outside the NCIS Personnel office and handed me an application."

Deeks was really curious now, "how did you make the transition from cop to agent?" He was thinking about his own hopefully upcoming transition from cop to agent.

"It really wasn't that hard. It was the same stuff but working for the Navy rather than a city. It's still the same stuff I was doing before: investigate murders, find drug dealers, take down human traffickers." He shrugged again, "It's the same music different musician."

That really had Deeks thinking he should really push LAPD to let him go. Enough was enough after all.

"You ever thought about being an agent?" Tony questioned him.

"Actually, I'm just waiting for LAPD to release me. My application was accepted except that LAPD wants to keep me. I'm really hoping Hetty can pull some strings soon and get me out of LAPD."

By this time they had reached Compton. Deeks checked his phone and got the address of the first complainant.


End file.
